3 Solutions to Embed MP4 into PowerPoint 2016/2013/2010

You can't beat PowerPoint for giving a powerful way to outline presentation ideas and display them visually. How can you add life to your presentations? One way is to to insert a movie to slides to make the PPT interesting and appealing. However, in some cases, inserting common MP4 in PowerPoint will end in failure. Sometimes, even you embed a MP4 in PowerPoint, you still get a "Cannot play back the file. The format is not supported" message when playing the movie during presentation. This article will explains why PowerPoint often failed to insert MP4 in PowerPoint and gives 3 easy solutions to successfully embed and play MP4 in PowerPoint 2016, 2013, 2011, 2010, 2007, 2003, 2000, even older version of PowerPoint.

Part I: Why can't insert MP4 into PPT successfully

Main Reason: Version Conflict and Compatibility Problem

PowerPoint 2007 and lower version: According to Microsoft, PowerPoint 2007 and lower version only support WMV, AVI, ASF, and MPG (MPEG-1) video formats, these old versions of PowerPoint still cannot insert MP4 files, that's why you can't play MP4 in PowerPoint 2007/2003/2002/2000/97/95.

PowerPoint 2010: It does play MP4 files, but it only play Apple QuickTime MP4 movie and must be with the Apple QuickTime player installed.

PowerPoint 2010 64-bit version: It is not compatible with 32-bit versions of QuickTime; you must install a 64-bit version of QuickTime or Flash, or a 32-bit version of PowerPoint 2010.

PowerPoint 2013: Only support .mp4 videos encoded with H.264 video (a.k.a. MPEG-4 AVC) and AAC audio.

While MP4 is a container video format which may contain various video or audio codec. If the source MP4 video is not encoded with PowerPoint compatible codec or doesn't meet the above requirement, PowerPoint will fail to play it.

Other Reasons:

Question: How to solve the above issue "MP4 video files moved to a different path or folder"?

If you plan to send email with your PowerPoint or copy it onto a CD, please ensure that the links of the video files has been updated. Most importantly, always save or move the video file into the EXACT SAME FOLDER as PowerPoint. In PowerPoint, you can easily use the "Publish > Package for CD" to ensure that all associated media or video files that you have inserted int PowerPoint are properly saved in the same folder.

Please follow the links below for a detailed step-by-step instruction on how to update the links based on your Office's version.

Part II: 3 Solutions to embed MP4 into PowerPoint

Solution One: Convert MP4 to PowerPoint Format for presentation

To solve "PowerPoint won't insert MP4" issue, a widely recommended solution is convert MP4 to PowerPoint compatible MP4 format. Dimo Video Converter Ultimate is the best choice to complete this task.

This MP4 to PowerPoint we all think could be the best professional and fastest one for transcoding all MP4 files. With it, you don't need to worry about MP4 and PowerPoint compatibility problems. It supports converting all kinds of PowerPoint unrecognized MP4 files to PowerPoint more compatible WMV, AVI, MPEG-1, MOV. with fast encoding speed and excellent output quality.

Note: The MKV, FLV, WebM, MXF, AVCHD, MTS, VOB, H.265 files are all not supported by PowerPoint, so if you have movies in these formats, the best way is to convert them to PowerPoint supported format. After the conversion, you can easily use your movie files in any version of PowerPoint Presentation including PowerPoint 2016, 2010, 2007, 2003, 2000, 2002, 2005 or even PowerPoint 95, 97. If you’re using a Mac, please turn to the Mac verison (macOS High Sierra supported). Just get the right version and follow the guide below to convert MP4 to PowerPoint supported video formats.

Make Preparation: Run MP4 to PowerPoint Converter

Free download the top fastest MP4 Converter for PowerPoint - Dimo Video Converter Ultimate (for Windows, for Mac), install and run it, the following interface will pop up.

3 Steps to Convert MP4 to PowerPoint Format

Step 1. Load MP4 videos to PowerPoint won't insert

The first way of adding MP4 is to click "Add File" icon. The second way of importing MP4 is to simply drag the videos you want from your computer to this app. Add your MP4 file one by one. After that, all imported MP4 files will appear as thumbnails in this app's left item tray.

Step 2. Choose PowerPoint video format

Press the small triangle to the right of "Select Format", a drop down menu will pop up, select PowerPoint compatible MPEG-1 video format from "Format > Video" category. Both PC and Mac can play MPEG-1 Video in PowerPoint. For Windows user, you can also choose WMV or AVI as the output formats; for Mac user, please select MOV or MP4 Video as the output formats.

At right bottom of "Output folder", click "..." button to change the default destination, select the right folder that will hold the converted videos.

If you want to personalize MP4 videos, you can trim videos to get the wanted segments, crop the black bars, adjust video effects, set professional parameters, add watermark/3D effect and so on. To get customized MP4 videos, you can click "Edit" to activate the built-in editor:

If you have done all these settings, just click "Start" button to start converting MP4 videos to PowerPoint format you select. And the converting progress will be finished within minutes. When conversion completes, press on "Open" to locate converted videos.

How to embed converted MP4 video in PowerPoint for playing with no restriction?

Before starting adding video to PowerPoint, you need to create a folder and put both your converted video and your PowerPoint presentation in this folder. Then open the PowerPoint in this folder to insert the converted video file which is just located in this folder.

Start the Microsoft PowerPoint program. Use the keys "Ctrl" + "O" to open the presentation into which you would like to insert an MP4 file. Or press "Ctrl" + "N" to create a new presentation. Then:

For PowerPoint 2007 and higher: Select Insert tab from ribbon, and click Movie and select the converted file to insert into PowerPoint for playback.

For PowerPoint 2003 and lower: From menu, select Insert -> Movies and Sounds -> Movie from File…, and select the converted file to insert into PowerPoint.

Then an alert box pops up asking "How do you want the movie to start in the slid show?". To play the movie automatically, click automatically. To start your movie by clicking the mouse, click When Clicked.

After inserting, click on the inserted MP4 video and move it to a desired position within the slide while holding the left mouse button. Press "Ctrl" +"S" or click "Save" on the program toolbar. Type a desired name in the "File name" field and press the button "Save" to save the presentation with the embeded MP4 file.

Note that inserted MP4 video files are not embedded but rather referenced within the PowerPoint file. To make your presentation work properly on another computer, make sure to transfer all inserted MP4 files together with your PowerPoint presentation.

Conclusion

With this fastest MP4 to PowerPoint converter, you can insert and embed any kind of MP4 video in SD/HD/4K from camcorders, iTunes, YouTube, QuickTime, iDVD, iMovie, iPad, iPhone, iPod, etc. into any version of PowerPoint including PowerPoint 2016, 2010, 2007, 2003, 2000, 2002, 2005 or even PowerPoint 95, 97 for presentation with no restriction. Why don't give this powerful tool a try?

Solution Two: Change the File Extension to Insert MP4 into PowerPoint

Many users choose this solution since it's the cheapest way so far. However, changing the extension doesn't always work.

Solution Three: Insert QuickTime MP4 into PowerPoint 2010

If you are using PowerPoint 2010 and want to add QuickTime MP4 to PowerPoint, there are two prerequisites:

Prerequisite 1: The QuickTime player must be installed on your computer, and then you can insert an Apple QuickTime movie (.mov, .mp4) file.

Prerequisite 2: A 64-bit version of QuickTime or Flash, or a 32-bit version of PowerPoint 2010 must be installed, if your PowerPoint is 64-bit version.

That's all. Now, pick the best solution for you to create a vivid slide show with PowerPoint.

Part III: Tips for using MP4 files in PowerPoint

Apart from using downloaded MP4 in PowerPoint, you can also insert an online video. Select a source to search for a video if you elected to download one from online. PowerPoint 2013 gives you access to YouTube videos, your personal OneDrive folder and, if you've connected Facebook to your Microsoft Windows account, any video from your personal Facebook account. If you want to use a video from another source, you can insert its embed code here as well.

STEP 1: Move and resize the video just as you would any other PowerPoint object. Simply drag the video to move it. To resize it, drag the corner handles that appear on its border when you click on it. You can even rotate the video on an angle using the circular "Rotate" handle that appears on its top border.

STEP 2: Right-click the video to see the most common editing options. These same options, plus several more, are also available when you click the "Format" and "Playback" menus under the Video Tools section at the top of the window.

STEP 3: Select the "Trim" option after right-clicking the video to trim the video's length from the beginning or end. In the Trim Video window that opens, you can drag the sliders or type the start time and end times you want to use in your presentation.

STEP 4: Select "Style" from the right-click menu to change the video's border or add effects like a drop-shadow to the video. If you don't like the available styles, remember that you can always select a border or effect by clicking the options under the Video Tools Format menu.

STEP 5: Right-click the video, select "Start" and then click "Automatically" if you want the video to start as soon as the slide appears. PowerPoint's default setting is to begin playing the video only when you click on it.

STEP 6: Click the "Playback" menu to specify if you want the video to rewind to the beginning after playing, or if you want it to play in a loop. Looping a short video can be useful if you want to ensure your audience really gets the message your video contains. To make the video play in full-screen mode when you click it, select the "Full Screen" check box.

STEP 7: Use the "Fade In" or "Fade Out" options if you want to add a fade effect to the video. Enter the amount of time in seconds that you want the video to fade. A 3-second fade, for example, appears as "03.00" in the text field.

STEP 8: Click the "Format" menu to adjust the video's appearance as desired. Click the "Video Shape" option in the Video Styles group, for example, to make the video take on any shape in PowerPoint's shape gallery, including an oval, heart, star or even a scrolled banner.

STEP 9: Click the "Slideshow" icon at the bottom of the PowerPoint window to see your video before saving it.

In addition to the MP4 file extenstion, MPEG-4 videos can also use MPEG, MPE, M1V or MPV at the end of the file name. Always test your PowerPoint slideshow on the computer you will be using for the presentation before it's time to go on stage. For example, if you're using online video, the computer may require that you install the Shockwave Flash Player before it can play the video.