Resolved MP3 file won't play in PowerPoint

In WinXP (Media Center edition) my friend is creating a PowerPoint (2003) presentation. I'm collaborating with him over the Internet via TeamViewer. We're sort of experienced, not just beginners, but obviously we have a lot to learn about PP. By the way, the PP Help files and Google offered no help at all on this topic.

Here's our problem. The 1st through 7th slides all have MP3 files inserted into them and each of these files plays fine in PP when tested with the Play and/or Slide Show button. We are being very careful to treat all the slides in the presentation identically. On slide 8, however, the MP3 file (which like all of these MP3s plays fine in Windows Media Player), after clicking on Play or Slide Show, this particular MP3 refuses to play. The MP3 on slide 9 plays fine. We thought the name might be too long, but after shortening it down from about 50 to about 25 characters, it still refuses to play in PP. The other MP3s that play all have longer names, so it became obvious that can't be the source of the problem. Now all these MP3s are from the same batch and have all been treated the same way, but this particular MP3 although it plays fine like all the others in WMP, will not play in PP! Can anyone explain the outright refusal of an ordinary MP3 to play in PowerPoint while it plays normally in WMP?

Of course I'm expecting questions about variables in the slides and MP3s, etc., which I can't anticipate until I'm asked. Thank you.

Frank D

 

This is from an e-mail I just received from my friend:
"Just FYI, I've been trying to insert music into that slide using any .mp3, and the *curious* thing is that some of them will play and some will not -- and they are all plain .mp3! There doesn't seem to be any pattern as to which ones will play and which ones will not. "
At this point I'm getting an idea: I'll have to take a look at the bitrates of those files.

Frank D

 

Interesting additions:
(1) The MP3 on Slide 8 will play after a ~5-second delay when the Play button is clicked but it still will not when the Slide Show button is clicked and will not play during the actual slide show.
(2) There is no difference in the sampling rates or bit rates of the MP3s on slides 1-9. They are all identical in their specs except for their lengths.

Any clues?

Frank D

 

A persistent search on Google turned up some good articles. You just have to word the search phrase properly (which obviously I didn't do the first few times).

The problem is fixed and here are the links to the reference material that helped me do it:
http://www.presentationmagazine.com/powerpoint_music.htm (very good site)
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/HA010348231033.aspx

Basically there were three things wrong with the sound file (MP3) that prevented it from playing:
1. Its path length was too long. We shortened the file name and path length (in conjunction with #2 below).
2. It wasn't located in the same folder as all the other MP3s. We relocated it into the same folder.
3. Not enough space had been allocated in PowerPoint for the size of the file (~6.7 MB). We corrected this via Tools > Options > General > "Link files with file size greater than ____ ".

I hope this helps someone else with the same kind of problem.

Frank D