They say one minute of video is equivalent to 1.8 million words, and that’s exactly how it feels when trying to transcribe video into text. Manual typing can really wear down your joints. And having to pause and replay the same scenes can really wear down your sanity.
Fortunately, this is (mostly) a forgotten nightmare. There are now AI-enhanced tools that are specifically designed to transcribe video into text for you. You just have to upload your footage to get a text-based transcription. No more manual typing or pausing/rewinding your footage. Phew!
This tutorial explains how to transcribe your video to text with online transcription software. It also explains everything you can do with your transcriptions, from making subtitles to class notes to searchable transcripts for your team.
But first:
What actually is video-to-text transcription?
Video-to-text transcription converts the audio in a video file into an editable text document (think Word, PDF, SRT, and more). That way, you can get a simple, shareable file to give to your friends, share with your coworkers, or convert into other formats, if needed.
Here’s how video-to-text transcription usually works at a high level:
- You upload a video file (usually MOV or MP4) into a transcription tool.
- The transcription tool converts the video into audio or extracts the audio, and then strips out background noise to ensure a more accurate transcript.
- Next, the audio data is processed by acoustic models and language models, which analyse speech patterns and context to predict the sound being said and sequence the sounds into words and sentences. AI technology is often incorporated to improve transcription accuracy.
- A typed transcript of your video file is produced in a text format of your choice, such as a TXT or DOC file.
All of these processes work behind the scenes to bring you accurate video-to-text transcriptions in minutes rather than hours.
The many use cases and advantages of converting video to text
There are so many reasons to transcribe video to text, whether you’re a business owner, a research student, or a nonprofit leader looking for cost-effective ways to repurpose content.
Let’s take a look at everything you can do with your transcriptions, separated into personal, professional, and nonprofit use cases.
Personal use cases
- Get a readable transcript for places where listening to audio isn’t practical. For example, you might need to reference a video in the library or catch up on a lecture while taking the bus.
- Create instant notes from online school lectures and classes. These will be searchable transcripts that you can easily add notes to or extract important quotes from, so you don’t have to worry about taking manual notes.
- Translate content from one language to another. If the video is in a different language, just convert the contents to a transcript, and then run this through a translation tool like Google Translate to get the language you need.
Professional use cases
Content Marketing
- Boost your SEO (search engine optimisation) rankings. When you create a transcript of your video content, you can simply upload it to your website with your video. This provides content that is more easily readable by Google, improving the chances of your content being surfaced in the Google search results when someone does a Google search for a related keyword.
Education
- Make video footage more accessible. All it takes is a few clicks to convert your video into a readable transcript that can be uploaded alongside the video or printed as a resource handout. That way, those with disabilities and differing needs can still digest the content of your video lectures, recordings, or webinars. You could also translate that transcript with a translation tool, to make the contents accessible to people whose first language is different from that used in the video.
Sales
- Archive important notes from meetings, sales calls, or interviews. That way, you don’t need to worry about ‘who said what’, and you have airtight transcripts of exactly what happened (and when). The transcripts are easier to store (they take up less space than video files), and can be easily searched for key information at a later date, if needed.
Research
- Create searchable transcripts from user testing or research interviews. This makes data analysis much easier to manage, especially if you’re performing qualitative research or keyword mapping specific words or ideas. You could also use AI software to help analyse the digital transcripts for key trends and themes.
Legal
- Keep searchable records. With a transcript of your video, it’s easy to quickly locate the information you need without having to rewatch the whole video again. This could be useful for HR teams, legal proceedings, and more.
Media and entertainment
- Create subtitles for a video. Turn your video content into subtitles to help you reach and engage with a wider audience. You could even translate the subtitles externally and add them to the video, to create subtitles in another language for international viewers.
Events
- Repurpose content to get more eyeballs on your event. You can easily transform webinars, podcasts, conference talks, presentations, or lectures into help articles, blog post guides, or social media content, to maximise publicity.
Nonprofit use cases
- Take grant applications to a whole new level. Easily convert your impact stories and video testimonials into grant applications that put the power of your organisation on display.
- Build a library of training resources. You could create written training materials from video webinars and workshops that will help future volunteers find their feet while getting started.
- Give donors a more impactful look into your organisation. By converting video content into newsletters and impact reports, you can easily repurpose existing content while creating an accessible experience for donors.
You can see that video transcription is an incredibly powerful tool. The use cases above barely scratch the surface of what it can help with. But with different video transcription tools coming out of the woodwork, you want to be sure you’re using the cream of the crop. Keep reading for a breakdown on finding the best video-to-text tool for your needs.
What should you look for in a video-to-text tool?
There are several video-to-text transcription tools on the market, but not all tools are created equal. How do you sort the wheat from the chaff and avoid wasting time on tools that give poor-quality results?
It usually comes down to asking good questions. Here’s how to find the best video-to-text transcription tools for your specific needs:
- Tool usability. How easy is it to navigate the interface? Is the conversion process intuitive, or do you need to go hunting for instructions?
- Transcription accuracy. What’s the quality of the results you’ll get? How accurately does the tool transcribe the speech in the video file? The last thing you want is a conversion tool that spits out half-baked phrases or inaccurate transcriptions. Some of the best online converters are 98% accurate or higher. Other models may provide poor-quality results. Take a look at user reviews (e.g. on Trustpilot) to gauge how happy other customers have been with the accuracy of conversions.
- Speed. How long will it take to get your transcribed text? You can usually expect conversion tools to take anywhere from 30 seconds to a few hours (depending on the video size and text amounts, of course). However, a video transcription tool shouldn’t need multiple days to convert spoken audio into text. If a tool doesn’t have a strong history of relatively fast conversions, it may be worth exploring another option.
- Online/offline capabilities. Do you want an offline, downloadable software or an online tool? While you may need to look for an offline tool if your company has ultra-strict software-use policies, for most people an online tool is quicker and more convenient. There’s no hefty software to install on your computer, and with an online tool you can be more confident you are using the latest version of the software for more accurate transcriptions.
- Trusted company. How reputable is the company running the tool? Is the tool safe to use? Some video conversion tools claim to be free, but spam users with ads of varying degrees of quality. Other software may contain viruses. So, again, it’s worth taking a look at user or tech publication reviews before deciding to use any video conversion tools.
- Strong data protection. What happens to your uploaded files, and how is your data handled? You want to make sure the tool will keep your personal data and files safe, so look for robust privacy policies that are transparent about how your data will be stored and protected.
Zamzar is a reliable online tool for when you need to transcribe video to text. It’s easy and quick to use, provides high-quality transcripts, and there’s no software to download. As a company, Zamzar have been converting files since 2006, with plenty of customer reviews and media reviews to vouch for the quality of service provided. Plus, you can have peace of mind that your files, data, and computer are all safe when you convert your video to text using Zamzar’s site.
How to transcribe video to text with Zamzar
Getting started with Zamzar is simple, fast, and free.
Here’s how to convert video to text in just a few steps:
1. Hop over to zamzar.com/tools/video-to-text/.
Note: This tool will automatically convert your video into a TXT (text) file, which can be opened by most text editors. If you’re looking to convert to another format, such as DOC or PDF, just use the links listed below, in the section ‘What file formats does Zamzar support for video transcription?’
2. Upload the video file you wish to transcribe. You can do this by dragging-and-dropping files onto the converter, or by tapping the green plus (+) button to select footage from local storage on your device.
3. Select the language of the audio in the video. You can do this using the dropdown menu in the window that opens. (Alternatively, you can leave ‘Autodetect’ selected, but choosing a language can give more accurate results.)
4. Click ‘Convert now’ to start the file conversion.
5. Wait a few moments until your file is converted. (Don’t have time to wait? Just copy and save the page link so you can access it later.)
6. When the conversion process is complete, you’ll see a blue Download button. Click this to download your new TXT file to your device so you can read the transcription of your video.
Now you can use your transcribed text to write blogs and social media posts, store information in a searchable format, or create subtitles, captions, translated content, and more.
Video-to-text transcription FAQs
What file formats does Zamzar support for video transcription?
With Zamzar, you can convert MP4 or MOV video files to several formats, including document formats like DOC, PDF, and TXT, and subtitle formats like SRT and VTT. Here’s a list of all the video-to-text conversions currently offered:
From MP4 format:
- MP4 to DOC (Microsoft Word Document)
- MP4 to DOCX (Microsoft Word Document)
- MP4 to JSON (JavaScript Object Notation File)
- MP4 to PDF (Portable Document Format)
- MP4 to SRT (SubRip Text File)
- MP4 to TSV (Tab-Separated Values File)
- MP4 to TXT (Text File)
- MP4 to VTT (Web Video Text Tracks File)
From MOV format:
- MOV to DOC (Microsoft Word Document)
- MOV to DOCX (Microsoft Word Document)
- MOV to JSON (JavaScript Object Notation File)
- MOV to PDF (Portable Document Format)
- MOV to SRT (SubRip Text File)
- MOV to TSV (Tab-Separated Values File)
- MOV to TXT (Text File)
- MOV to VTT (Web Video Text Tracks File)
What languages does Zamzar support when transcribing video to text?
Zamzar proudly supports over 50 languages for video transcription, including right-to-left languages like Arabic and Hebrew, and ideographic languages like Chinese and Japanese. The language of the file will be automatically detected, but you can also manually select a language for the file to get even more accurate results.
How can I add text to a video?
With Zamzar, you can convert video files into SRT or VTT format, which are subtitle files. These files can then be added to the video file to allow subtitles to show along with the video content. It’s easy to generate text for your videos without sacrificing another weekend manually transcribing or paying hundreds to an outsourced transcriptionist.
How do I turn a video into a long PDF?
You can quickly turn a video into a PDF document using Zamzar’s video-to-PDF converter. Just upload your video file to Zamzar’s tool, and the tool will automatically transcribe all the audio in the file, leaving you with a PDF transcription that you can read and share.
To easily get a typed transcript from your video, why not give the Zamzar video-to-text converter a try!
Happy converting!
[Cover photo by Videodeck.co. Additional photos by Arie Oldman, LinkedIn, and Christin Hume.]