MP4 playback issues in Powerpoint on Dell XPS - Iris Xe iGPU

When you're ready to share your presentation, do the following:

On the File tab of the Ribbon, select Info.

If the media in your presentation was inserted in a format that might have compatibility issues when played on another device, the Optimize Compatibility option will appear. If it doesn’t appear, you don’t have compatibility issues and are ready to share.

optimize compatibility button in PowerPoint
Select Optimize Compatibility*. PowerPoint will improve any media that requires optimization.

Compatibility processing dialog

Compatibility processing dialog
* Embedded subtitles and alternate audio tracks are removed in this optimization process.

When the Optimize Compatibility button appears, it provides a summary of resolutions of potential playback issues. It also provides a list of the number of occurrences of media in the presentation. The following are common scenarios that can cause playback issues:

If you have linked videos, Optimize for Compatibility reports that you need to embed them. Select View Links to proceed. The dialog box that opens allows you to embed the videos by selecting Break Link for each link you want to embed.

If you have videos that were inserted using an earlier version of PowerPoint, such as PowerPoint PowerPoint 2007, you'll need to upgrade your media file format so that these files will play. Upgrading automatically updates and embeds the files in the newest format. Once you have upgraded, you should run Optimize for Compatibility again.

To upgrade your media files from an earlier version (such as PowerPoint 2007) to PowerPoint 2010 or later (and embed linked files), on the File tab, select Info, and then select Convert.

Hello Adrian,

Unfortunately, my Office 365 for Enterprise build doesn't have a "Optimize Compatibility" feature in File, Info.

There was a "Compress media" feature, which I used, but unfortunately didn't fix the issue.

But that would have been a rudimentary patch anyways, as my issue disappears when I use the trial version of Office that came with the laptop.

I didn't even know you could embed MP4 video files in a PowerPoint presentation.

My guess is how the videos actually got encoded ... either when created or maybe an auto re-encode on insertion.

If you want, you can upload your (known failing) PowerPoint presentation somewhere. I'll download it and run it on Office-365/Office-2021 on one of my laptops. You can choose between my XPS-13_9310 (Iris only) or my XPS-15_9520 (Iris and Nvidia) ... one or the other please. 

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@bobzwik wrote:

Hi Tesla,

Thanks for the offer! It's not "embedded" per se, it's a video copied into a PPT slide, which plays when viewing the PPT. I say "embedded video" as opposed to "linked video", as the video is fully copied into the .pptx file and doesn't require a link to the original video file.

Here is an example file videoTest.pptx . The video can be played, but after a few clicks in the playback bar, Powerpoint crashes.

I feel like this is really dependent on the Office version and build used.

Our IT guy at the university (pretty amazing guy) installed the version of Office he installs on uni computers (Office LTSC Professional Plus 2021, 16.0.14332.20375), and that has solved my problem, Powerpoint crashes no more.

So for now the issue is "fixed" for me, but I can imagine this can happen to others.

 

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Well, at least you got it working.

Even in French, I managed to download that file. Works fine for me in:

Microsoft PowerPoint 2021 MSO (Version 2208 Build 16.0.15601.20148) 64-bit

Not sure if that was just a demo or are yall testing drones? I fly custom-built drones also, but can't say I've ever tried to land on an angle like that. Always level ground. I don't think even an automated (flight controller) landing can do that successfully.

Thanks for testing out the PPT for me! And I'm sorry about the trouble you had with Sharepoint (and I had no clue it would show up in French). It's always been hit or miss with our Uni's Sharepoint.

But yes, with a different version of Office, I can now use Powerpoint with my issue.

And yes! my research project is about landing drones on inclined surfaces. I know it's off topic, but we recently published an article and video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG1K_63q00Y . I've been working on several different drone projects in the past 6 years, it's fun turning a hobby into research/work!

But back to the subject, should I close this thread by accepting a solution (installing a different version/build of Office)?

Yea so this problem happens for me as well, on a XPS 9510 (11th gen i9), and it appears to have to do with the Intel display driver - if I roll back the driver, the powerpoint crash symptoms disappear, but then they reappear whenever update installs a new driver again. It's not great. Actually this is one of many problems with this laptop, including weird behaviors like Bluetooth randomly disconnecting, screen tearing during scrolling, random crashing.

Hi, same problem here with XPS 17 9720.

Since I use a lot of presentation with videos inside, I'm getting mad with it!

Any advice?

Issue fixed please update Intel UHD/Iris Xe Graphics Driver to 31.0.101.4032 version. This fixed one year issues!!!

Yes, similar situation still exists in May 23. Brand new xps 9320 will not play embedded video. Seeing this thread I reinstalled office (as part of my microsoft 365) and problem was fixed.