Ask Mainstream Volume Eleven

Q: How do I convert my PowerPoint to video?
We have an existing PowerPoint slide show. Now we want to distribute it as a CD-ROM, a DVD and as a Flash File on our intranet. Can you do that?

A: We do it all the time. But you need to have realistic expectations.

The important thing to remember is that your show will never, ever look as good in another format as it does in PowerPoint. The primary reason is that these other formats are a much lower resolution. The average PowerPoint slide contains over one million pixels of information. By comparison, an average frame in a CD-ROM file contains only about 8% of that original file size. In other words, 92% of the quality that we have all come to expect in our PowerPoint is lost when that slide is converted to a CD-ROM. DVDs are better; about 70% of the quality is lost in the DVD conversion process. The result? Even though we try to set realistic expectations, we often hear these comments: “fuzzy”, “can’t read the copy”, and “out of focus”.

The design of your PowerPoint is another potential pitfall. PowerPoint has empowered the masses to create their own presentation materials. This is a very good thing. However designing slides for maximum impact sometimes gets lost in the equation. Good design can be difficult to achieve. It requires artistic talent as well as the experience to know what happens to your content in extreme situations. By its very nature, PowerPoint is a forgiving format. Today’s super bright projectors and large screens allow for easy readability, even with questionable design choices. That is not the case on the small screen. Type style, font size, drop shadows, color choices and copy safe areas all impact readability on the small screen.

Let’s talk about “copy safe area” as one example. On a computer screen, the entire area of the slide is visible. As a result, we often see slides created with text placed very close to the edges. Converting that slide to video will result in the copy being cut off at the edges because a TV screen does not show the entire area of the frame. Each set is different, but on the average TV, about 5% of the frame gets cut off on all four sides.

What to do?
We use state of the art equipment and technology to make the best possible transfer of your material. We will size your slides so that none of the copy will be cut off on a TV screen. But that means reducing the overall size of the image… further reducing readability.

In some cases, we may recommend redesigning or recreating your content. If Flash is the format you need to use for distribution, then high quality results are best achieved by recreating the content using Flash software. If a DVD is your final product, then producing the project in video will yield superior results to a transfer from another format. Often times, there is just too much information on each slide to be read on the small screen. The solution might be to increase copy size by using more individual slides. Recreating or improving your content will cost more money, but distributing an inferior product may not accomplish your objective.

Remember, these transfers can never match the quality of PowerPoint, so please consider the alternatives, and if you have questions, Just Ask Mainstream.

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