Problem with Powerpoint: Embedded Audio

Question

I have two powerpoint presentations, both including audio, that both automatically sync the audio with the page being displayed.

One works on all the required computers; the other only on some. I cannot easily determine what's causing the audio to fail. In both powerpoints, the audio is embedded (not linked). Re-recording the audio on the broken one is possible, but I'd prefer to avoid that expense if necessary.

Using FixLinks pro, I was able to get a report of the embedded audio; interstingly, they appear to be embedded differently:

Slide   ShapeName       Mouse   Status  Link Type
=====   =========       =====   ======  =========
1       Audio 8         M/C     N/A     embedded media object
2       Audio 7         M/C     N/A     embedded media object
1       ~PP2822.WAV     M/C     N/A     embedded media object
2       ~PP839.WAV      M/C     N/A     embedded media object

The first two lines are from the file that works on some computers (bad), the second two lines are from a powerpoint that works on all computers (good). Anyone know how the audio was embedded in the first PP, how I might extract it or re-encode it to be embedded properly?

Answer 1

You probably have found a solution to this already, but thought I would answer anyway: my feeling would be that the first two audio files are encoded in a certain format, mp3, aac etc which might not be playable without certain codecs being installed on client machine, while the later two are wavs which are fine on any windows machine. The best way to get access to the files is to save a copy of the PowerPoint as pptx (using 2007 or 2010), then either change the extension of the saved file to zip or open directly using a file archive program and you will find a directory ppt with a sub-directory "media" there you should find those files, extract them and convert to wav and then re-insert them as normal in PowerPoint.