Questions about mp3 in multimedia presentations

Phil St. Romain · 10-21-2003, 02:31 PM

I've created a Keynote presentation of 15 slides that I want to make available on a CD in pdf and Power Point. For each slide, there is a short audio narration that I've recorded using Amadeus, saving the file as MP3.

A. I exported the presentation in both pdf and Power Point formats. The slides came out fine.
B. When re-choosing the sound files from their sound folder, Acrobat and Power Point booted Amadeus to play the sound. That's no good.
C. Changed the audio files metadata by importing and exporting in Quicktime using Sound Studio. That worked. The files played fine and didn't even boot QT player.
D. Burned CD in ISO 9660/Joilet format to see if the presentations would play on a Mac on CD. They did.
E. Tried out the presentations on Windows. Neither Acrobat nor Power Point recognized the sound files. I can't even get them to play on WinAmp or Windows Media Player.

So, where do I go from here? How can I create an MP3 format that will play on both Power Point and Acrobat on the Mac and PC platforms? That's what I need to do.

- incidentally, my Amadeus and QT converted MP3s play well in iTunes, fwiw. I note, however, the following comment in Path Finder for these files:
Corrupt or is non standard MP3.
ID3 1.x tag not found.

yellow · 10-21-2003, 02:37 PM

Hmm.. what about AIFF or WMV?

Phil St. Romain · 10-21-2003, 02:46 PM

That might work, only the sound files wouldn't fit on one CD, which is part of what I'm trying to accomplish.

yellow · 10-21-2003, 02:52 PM

So the audio blurbs are lengthy enough to be sizable in AIFF, huh? The MP3s that you had originally should have been able to be made to open via Quicktime and not Amedeus.. using Get Info & "Open With" before putting it in the Presentation. Maybe that would settle your troubles. Hopefully. But then I wonder if they would want Quicktime to be installed on the PC to function.. shouldn't because they're MP3.

What about .WAV? Those are slightly compressed and definitely work on default Windoze and Apple installs.

Phil St. Romain · 10-21-2003, 03:00 PM

I made the audio files with Amadeus and translated to QT using Sound Studio because changing the File attributes using the Finder wasn't enough; Acrobat and Power Point wouldn't recognize them.

.wav files are also too big; won't fit on a CD. The MP3s come out to 450 MB.

yellow · 10-21-2003, 03:04 PM

Quote:


	Originally posted by Phil St. Romain The MP3s come out to 450 MB.

Daaaamn. Hmm..

yellow · 10-21-2003, 03:17 PM

Hmmm.. I've been experimenting with PPT and MP3s and the only way I could get them to play way if I made them clickable. I could not get them to play automatically.

[edit: as Quicktime MP3s]

mervTormel · 10-21-2003, 03:18 PM

Quote:


	Originally posted by Phil St. Romain The MP3s come out to 450 MB.

is the sound voice?

what encoding bit rate?

Phil St. Romain · 10-21-2003, 03:49 PM

Voice only.
In Amadeus: 128 bit rate. id3.v2.3 tags. vbr_rh algorithim. I used its default resampling, so I'm not sure what it coded.

In the Sound Studio Quicktime exports, I chose 44,100 KHz, 16 bit Mono.

That should have worked, I believe.

mervTormel · 10-21-2003, 04:22 PM

you say "short audio narration" and audio file size is 450MB. how short, in total seconds?

something wrong.

try and step down the bit rate; psychoacoustics for voice doesn't suffer much from lossy encoding.

Phil St. Romain · 10-21-2003, 04:25 PM

Ha.

It's not one file, but 27-- roughly two narrations per slide: one "lite" and one more depthful.

Now here's something weird. My original MP3s created with Amadeus work just fine in Windows Power Point and Media Player.

Sometimes I wonder if this metadata business is friend or foe?

Phil St. Romain · 10-22-2003, 03:35 PM

I've gotten the mp3s to work in PowerPoint, but had to create a Mac and PC presentation. The slides worked fine cross-platform, but the very same sound files selected on one platform didn't work on the other, so I had to re-select them for each! I'm still not sure if this is something about the mp3 format I'm using, which seems pretty standard, or about a lack of compatibility between PowerPoint Mac/PC.

As for Acrobat, forget it! I can't get v.6 Pro to do anything with mp3s--not even iTunes! I can get v.5 to link to the mp3s, but they won't play in Reader v. 6 nor in Windows. After scouring the Acrobat discussion forums at adobe.com, I found several other complaints along this line.

I hope this helps some other poor soul struggling with the same.

10-21-2003, 02:31 PM	#1
Phil St. Romain Site Admin Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Wichita, KS Posts: 2,350	Questions about mp3 in multimedia presentations I've created a Keynote presentation of 15 slides that I want to make available on a CD in pdf and Power Point. For each slide, there is a short audio narration that I've recorded using Amadeus, saving the file as MP3. A. I exported the presentation in both pdf and Power Point formats. The slides came out fine. B. When re-choosing the sound files from their sound folder, Acrobat and Power Point booted Amadeus to play the sound. That's no good. C. Changed the audio files metadata by importing and exporting in Quicktime using Sound Studio. That worked. The files played fine and didn't even boot QT player. D. Burned CD in ISO 9660/Joilet format to see if the presentations would play on a Mac on CD. They did. E. Tried out the presentations on Windows. Neither Acrobat nor Power Point recognized the sound files. I can't even get them to play on WinAmp or Windows Media Player. So, where do I go from here? How can I create an MP3 format that will play on both Power Point and Acrobat on the Mac and PC platforms? That's what I need to do. - incidentally, my Amadeus and QT converted MP3s play well in iTunes, fwiw. I note, however, the following comment in Path Finder for these files: Corrupt or is non standard MP3. ID3 1.x tag not found.

10-21-2003, 02:52 PM	#4
yellow Moderator Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 10,677	So the audio blurbs are lengthy enough to be sizable in AIFF, huh? The MP3s that you had originally should have been able to be made to open via Quicktime and not Amedeus.. using Get Info & "Open With" before putting it in the Presentation. Maybe that would settle your troubles. Hopefully. But then I wonder if they would want Quicktime to be installed on the PC to function.. shouldn't because they're MP3. What about .WAV? Those are slightly compressed and definitely work on default Windoze and Apple installs. Last edited by yellow; 10-21-2003 at 02:54 PM.

10-21-2003, 03:17 PM	#7
yellow Moderator Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 10,677	Hmmm.. I've been experimenting with PPT and MP3s and the only way I could get them to play way if I made them clickable. I could not get them to play automatically. [edit: as Quicktime MP3s] Last edited by yellow; 10-21-2003 at 03:21 PM.

10-21-2003, 02:37 PM	#2
yellow Moderator Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 10,677	Hmm.. what about AIFF or WMV?

10-21-2003, 02:46 PM	#3
Phil St. Romain Site Admin Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Wichita, KS Posts: 2,350	That might work, only the sound files wouldn't fit on one CD, which is part of what I'm trying to accomplish.

10-21-2003, 03:00 PM	#5
Phil St. Romain Site Admin Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Wichita, KS Posts: 2,350	I made the audio files with Amadeus and translated to QT using Sound Studio because changing the File attributes using the Finder wasn't enough; Acrobat and Power Point wouldn't recognize them. .wav files are also too big; won't fit on a CD. The MP3s come out to 450 MB.

10-21-2003, 03:49 PM	#9
Phil St. Romain Site Admin Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Wichita, KS Posts: 2,350	Voice only. In Amadeus: 128 bit rate. id3.v2.3 tags. vbr_rh algorithim. I used its default resampling, so I'm not sure what it coded. In the Sound Studio Quicktime exports, I chose 44,100 KHz, 16 bit Mono. That should have worked, I believe.

10-21-2003, 04:22 PM	#10
mervTormel League Commissioner Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 5,536	you say "short audio narration" and audio file size is 450MB. how short, in total seconds? something wrong. try and step down the bit rate; psychoacoustics for voice doesn't suffer much from lossy encoding.

10-21-2003, 04:25 PM	#11
Phil St. Romain Site Admin Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Wichita, KS Posts: 2,350	Ha. It's not one file, but 27-- roughly two narrations per slide: one "lite" and one more depthful. Now here's something weird. My original MP3s created with Amadeus work just fine in Windows Power Point and Media Player. Sometimes I wonder if this metadata business is friend or foe?

10-22-2003, 03:35 PM	#12
Phil St. Romain Site Admin Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Wichita, KS Posts: 2,350	I've gotten the mp3s to work in PowerPoint, but had to create a Mac and PC presentation. The slides worked fine cross-platform, but the very same sound files selected on one platform didn't work on the other, so I had to re-select them for each! I'm still not sure if this is something about the mp3 format I'm using, which seems pretty standard, or about a lack of compatibility between PowerPoint Mac/PC. As for Acrobat, forget it! I can't get v.6 Pro to do anything with mp3s--not even iTunes! I can get v.5 to link to the mp3s, but they won't play in Reader v. 6 nor in Windows. After scouring the Acrobat discussion forums at adobe.com, I found several other complaints along this line. I hope this helps some other poor soul struggling with the same.