I’ve heard from several people last week that they could no longer get their YouTube videos to play in PowerPoint. If you didn’t know, PowerPoint (starting with version 2010) allows you to easily embed online videos using the video’s embed code.
Here is a quick tutorial that explains how to set this up.
HOWEVER, last week this method seemed to stop working. After a little tinkering, I figured out how to get it working again.
It turns out that you need to remove a little bit of the YouTube embed code before you paste it into PowerPoint.
For example, to embed the videoassociated with the code below, you should first delete the parts of the code that are shown in red.
<object width=”420″ height=”315″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/NurS_AjhNH0?version=3&hl=en_US”></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/NurS_AjhNH0?version=3&hl=en_US” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”420″ height=”315″ allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true”></embed></object>
Some videos in YouTube reverse the order of the parameters. Here is what you would delete in this case:
<object width=”560″ height=”315″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/7A-EZXSN1yg?hl=en_US&version=3“></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/7A-EZXSN1yg?hl=en_US&version=3” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”560″ height=”315″ allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true”></embed></object>
I’m not sure why this works. If anyone knows, please share in the comments.
Since some videos on YouTube (and other sites) do not allow embedding, I tend to shy away from using this feature in PowerPoint. I find that linking to the video provides results that are much safer. If you link directly to the video, then you know that YouTube is going to serve up the content in a quality that is best for your computer.
If you are concerned about the distractions at YouTube (comments, related videos, etc.), check out how to link to YouTube so that only the video will fill your browser.
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This has worked a treat. Thank you very much for taking the time to figure it out!
Further to my earlier comment even though the video plays when previewing it, it drops out once the document is saved and I try to play the presentation a short while later. It seems to do it without further changes having been made to the document, even though ‘play external content’ has been checked.
It’s a puzzler.
Hmmmm, I’m not having trouble. I was able to play the whole video during Slideshow and after saving.
Hi Dale and Muz,
I found this helfpfull hint. Upon removing the piece of code you suggested, either: “version=3&” or: “&version=3”, I still had no success in playing the video.
Continued searching got me to this answer, that solved the problem for me.
http://www.pptalchemy.co.uk/PowerPoint_Flash_Player_Version.html
It states that by removing only the “version=3” part it should play, and that did the trick for me.
I found the answer indirectly through a post by John Wilson Sr on: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2010-powerpoint/help-embedding-a-video/898d608a-b50b-4407-9b9e-6604f7daedde
Happy embedding!
Thanks ICTheoR! Not sure why the ‘&’ should matter but let’s give it a try if we get a video that fails.
Thank you so much!!!