I am preparing a powerpoint presentation that includes video. Any suggestions on what size the video should be, bitrate,and format?-Dont want it to fall apart when projected. I will be presenting from my Dell Laptop. I am bringing video INTO the powerpoint, not powerpoint into the video.

Thanks

WMV works pretty darn well with ppt on a pc (mac is different!).

Size, well, it depends. In ppt you can resize video, or show it full screen. WM's resizing engine is pretty good. So, perhaps 320x240 for in a window, 640x480 for SD clips, or on up to screen resolution for full screen with HD clips.

Bitrates can be relatively high, since you're playing back from hard drive.

Here's some rates to try, but a lot depends on the content:
320x240 - 650Kbps
640x480 - 1800Kbps
1280x720 (720p) - 6Mbps

If you ever need to do the powerpoint presentation from another PC then you need to save the video clips also in the same folder as the ppt file. Otherwise when you come to the video slide only the first frame will get displayed.

As well, the filepath MUST remain under a certain number of characters (I BELIEVE it's something like 128) in order to be accessed. This isn't a big deal as long as it's being played locally - I once spent half a day troubleshooting a PowerPoint that wouldn't work because the .PPT was trying to call a movie on a network drive, a VERY long logical address.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/HA100777161033.aspx