Export slides to video for an offline signage player

The export settings that matter

Four export settings decide how the file behaves on a screen. Set them once and reuse them for every export.

If the screen hangs portrait, build the slides at 1080 x 1920 and export that way; planning portrait and landscape signage content covers the layout decisions. If the finished MP4 plays on the PC but not on the player, the codec inside the container is the usual cause, and USB video playback troubleshooting works through that case.

What you need

• The finished slide deck, proofed and saved.
• A PC with an export-to-video option in the slide app; most desktop slide apps have one.
• A microSD card or USB stick for the player to read.
• A card reader, if the PC has no card slot.
• A screen and player to show the result. Our lobby displays play offline from the card with no subscription, and the guide to choosing a digital signage player covers the rest of the shortlist.

Time the slides, then export

1. Set the slide transition duration to about 10 seconds and use the apply-to-all control so every slide holds the same time. The timing is saved in the presentation file itself, so it survives a re-export and a colleague's edits.
2. Run the slide show on the PC with a clock in view. Every slide should hold about 10 s. If one flashes past in about 1 s, the duration did not take: set it again, apply it to all slides, save, and run the show once more. This is the most common way a good export goes wrong.
3. Export to video at 1920 x 1080 and 30 fps. If the export asks for a quality level instead of a frame rate, pick the 1080p level; where a frame-rate box exists, set 30 fps.
4. Let the export finish; expect a few minutes of rendering for a 2-minute loop.
5. Play the finished MP4 on the PC, end to end, before it goes near the screen, and check the order and the hold times.
6. Copy the file to the card, eject it cleanly, and seat it back in the player. If the video should start on its own when power arrives, the offline playlist autostart setup covers that step.

Worked example: a 12-slide sponsor loop in a lobby

The scenario: a sponsor board in a hotel lobby, 12 slides with a heading and three lines each, shown on a 50-inch 1080p screen, with the nearest reader standing about 12 ft away.

• Loop length: 12 slides x 10 s = 120 s, so the loop repeats every 2 minutes.
• Frame count: 120 s x 30 frames/s = 3,600 frames, almost all of them identical, which is why 30 fps is enough.
• File size: at 8 Mbit/s, a common planning bitrate for 1080p30 content, 120 s x 8,000,000 bits/s = 960,000,000 bits; divided by 8 bits per byte, about 120 MB.
• Text height: the FHWA rule of thumb gives 30 ft of viewing distance per inch of capital letter height, so 12 ft calls for capitals of at least 12 / 30 = 0.4 in on the picture. A 50-inch 16:9 picture stands 50 x 9 / √(16² + 9²) = 24.5 in tall, and 1080 pixels spread over 24.5 in is about 44 px per inch, so the 0.4 in floor is about 18 px. Sponsor names at 72 px stand about 1.6 in tall and read from roughly 48 ft, which suits a loop that has to work from the door.

Keeping the file small and the refresh quick

Still slides compress well, so the loop above lands near 120 MB. If a longer deck outgrows the free space on the card, drop the bitrate a step and re-export, then confirm the text stays sharp at your screen size with the video bitrate test before you deploy. Cutting resolution is the last resort; 1080p is what keeps small text legible.

Keep the deck and the exported MP4 in one folder, and export under the same filename every time, so a refresh is edit, re-export, copy. On a screen nobody wants to climb a ladder for, updating an offline signage screen with a phone hotspot replaces the card pull.

How to check it worked

On the PC, before the file ships:

• Every slide holds about 10 s and the show returns to slide 1 on its own.
• The smallest text on the busiest slide is legible from the planned viewing distance; in the example above, that is 12 ft.
• No slide flashes past in 1 s.

On the player:

• The video starts when the screen powers up, if the playlist is set to autostart.
• Each slide holds about 10 s on the big screen, the loop restarts cleanly, and there is no black gap between slides.
• If the timing is wrong on the screen but right in the exported file, an older copy of the video is usually still on the card; delete the stale file and copy the new one again.
• If the file plays over USB on the PC but shows a blank or an error on the player, fix a video that plays over USB but not in the player app is the walkthrough.

Recommendation: export at 1920 x 1080, 30 fps, with a 10-second transition duration applied to all slides, and treat the exported MP4 as the deliverable: play it once on the PC, copy it to the card under the same filename, and repeat that pair of steps at every content change. Build portrait and export at 1080 x 1920 only when the screen actually hangs portrait.

Questions