PowerPoint Videos in Dorico

Dorico
1

I am trying to bring a video exported from PowerPoint 365 into Dorico in order to write music to synchronize with it. The video is an MP4 that runs perfectly well if I double-click it or bring it into another program like Shotcut or VLC but in Dorico I get an error stating that the video format is not supported.

The video has the following properties:
Codec: H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10
Resolution: 852x480
Frame Rate: 30.302994
Format: yuv420p
Aspect Ratio: 16 x 9

My suspicion is that the frame rate is beyond the upper limit that Dorico will accept.

Does anyone have any ideas how I can transform this video into a format that Dorico will accept? The quality is not important. My concern is only with the timing.

Thanks,

2

I suggest you try transcoding it using Handbrake.

3

Thanks Daniel:

I’ll give that a try. Am I correct in assuming that all of the settings I listed are OK for Dorico except the frame rate and that I simply need to drop it to 30?

I appreciate all your help,

4

Works like a charm.

Thank you very much.

5

I tried Handbrake it works fine. Thank Daniel.

6

Am curious - and for anyone else reading, is that all you ended up doing David (inside Handbrake), to get it to work ok…?

TIA

Bob

7

I would guess it makes sense that Dorico only supports “industry standard” frame rates, to ensure frame-accurate synchronization is preserved when importing or exporting to other software.

Why anybody would want to use 30.302994 FPS seems a mystery - maybe the file actually uses some sort of variable frame rate (similar to variable bit rates for mp3 files) and that number is the average value for the whole file?

8

Yes, more or less.

  • In PowerPoint I exported logical groups of slides to MP4 with the default settings. The resolution does not appear to be critical so you can use low res to minimize file size. (see note below)


  • I opened each file in Handshake and it indicated a weird frame rate. I saved each one with the default frame rate of 30.


  • In Dorico, I attached each video to a separate flow using the video frame rate, not the project frame rate.


  • Once I was finished writing the music to accompany the presentation, I exported the audio as separate flows.


  • In PowerPoint, I inserted each audio file at the appropriate slide and adjusted the delay. I was then able to export the complete PowerPoint presentation as a self-contained MP4 movie that could then be shown without needing PowerPoint.

Note that by exporting groups of frames that were to be scored separately, rather than the entire presentation, I was able to adjust the start of each music clip to correct any slight synchronization issues. This also had the added benefit of making any changes to the original presentation easier to correct.

9

Thanks for all that David - sounds like you’ve got a good workflow there… wonder why (like @Rob Tuley asks above) the odd looking frame rate from PowerPoint (requiring the need for conversion via HandBrake). Just another step one could do without… :wink:

10

Sorry but I forgot to mention one more thing in HandBrake (not Handshake - crazy spell checker).

When I used the default fast 1080p preset, I had to select the Video tab and choose Constant framerate, not Peak framerate (VFR) since the latter uses a variable framerate that Dorico won’t accept.

11

It is a truth universally acknowledged that everything can be done without needing PowerPoint.