Multimedia playback is delayed during a slide show in PowerPoint

When you play back a Microsoft PowerPoint slide show that contains animations and multimedia components, the multimedia file may not start playing when you expect it to.

This problem may occur when an animation or multimedia file that is dependent on another file begins to play before the file that it is dependent on has loaded.

To work around this problem, use one of the following methods.

Method 1: Adjust the Dependent Animations Timing

Note The delay that you experience before the multimedia file begins to play depends on the processor speed of your computer. You may have to adjust the dependent animations timing speed more than one time to obtain the effect that you want. To adjust the dependant animations timing, follow these steps:

1. In the slide show, click to select the animation that you want to adjust.
2. In Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003, click Custom Animation on the Slide Show menu.
   In Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007, click the Animations tab, and then click Custom Animation in the Animations group.
3. On the Custom Animation task pane, right-click the animation that you want to change the timing delay for.
4. Click Timing in the drop-down box for that animation.
5. In the Delay dialog box, click the up arrow to increase the delay effect to the interval that you want, and then click OK.
6. Press F5.

Method 2: Save and View the Presentation As a Web Page

Note Web browsers do not use Media Control Interface (MCI), the Microsoft Windows internal multimedia player that is used by PowerPoint, to handle the multimedia file.

1. In PowerPoint 2003, click Options on the Tools menu.
   In PowerPoint 2007, click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click PowerPoint Options.
2. In PowerPoint 2003, click Web Options on the General tab in the Options dialog box.
   In PowerPoint 2007, click the Advanced tab, and then click Web Options in the General section.
3. In the Web Options dialog box, click to select the Show slide animation while browsing check box, and then click OK.
4. Click OK.
5. In PowerPoint 2003, click Save as Web Page on the File menu, and then click Save.
   In PowerPoint 2007, follow these steps:
   1. Click the Microsoft Office Button, point to Save As, and then click Other Formats.
   2. In the Save as type list, click to select Single File Web Page (*.mht; *.mhtml), and then click Save.
6. Start your Web browser.
7. Locate the slide show that you saved.
8. Click anywhere on the slide show to start the slide show.
   
   Note Because the Web browser plays media files differently from the way that MCI does, the media may not play the same as it does in PowerPoint.

Method 3: Use a Different Movie Format

Depending on the movie format and on your computer, PowerPoint uses either MCI or Microsoft Windows Media Player. This problem only occurs if PowerPoint detects that MCI is the best method for playing your particular movie format. If PowerPoint uses a different media format, such as a .wmv file, PowerPoint uses Windows Media Player instead of using MCI, and the problem that is described in the "Symptoms" section of this article does not occur.

Method 4: Insert Media by Using Windows Media Player

For more information about how to use Windows Media Player, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.