Transcribing from Video

Craig Bumgarner

I wasn't sure which catagory to use for this question, but figured it was at least a GEAR thing.........

With the barrage of videos now available, what tools and techniques are there for transcribing from video? Is there such a thing as Transcribe! or the Amazing Slow Downer for video? The average video players I've worked with so far are awful for transcribing.


Craig

nwilkins

if possible I suppose you could use a computer DVD player or similar to advance the video frame by frame and try to capture the notes visually. You could also simply capture the audio from the video and then use the programs you mention above.

Craig Bumgarner

Nick,

if possible I suppose you could use a computer DVD player or similar to advance the video frame by frame and try to capture the notes visually. You could also simply capture the audio from the video and then use the programs you mention above.

Yeah, I am doing both. Once into an audio file, Transcribe! works great as always. For slowing down the video, I use Roxio player and this gives me a variety of slow speeds, but the interface is clumsy for repeated starts, stops, backup and repeat. I wish I could set a start point and play speed and then toggle back to restart a phrase. As it is, I have to set it manually each time. And, of course, when in slow mode, there is no audio. Is there a better video program out if one's purpose was transcription?

What would be great would be a program like Transcibe! for video. I pinged Andy at Seventh String, maker of Transcribe! and he said he has been thinking about it, but that's all.

Craig

Jack

I just noticed that my version of Windows Media Player has a Fast, Normal, and Slow option for video playback (listed under Play Speed), which affects BOTH audio and video...so that might help with some files.

Best,
Jack.

Craig Bumgarner

Jack,

Interesting.... What version do you have? I have version 9 and though it has the ability to slow down the video, when I do, the audio drops out.



Craig

Jack

Um...I don't know! I can't quite figure out how to tell...I think it's just what came with my version of XP (home), and I bought my laptop in March. I think it did drop out a bit a first, then came back...

I might have just figured it out...it says the video codec is v9, and the audio is v9.1

Best,
Jack.

mosik

QuickTime 7 (Pro version) can slow down both video and audio to 50%. As a Mac user, I have Handbrake for converting some DVD clips into mp4 for Quicktime, and iSquint for converting any other video formats (even wmv).

Craig Bumgarner

The new version of !Transcribe, version 7.5, now slows down video and syncs the sound. Too cool for words. Transcribe opened a 250MB mp4 video of a Rosenberg Trio concert in about 20 seconds, no problem. I'm watching and listening to For Sephora at 50% (about my speed :oops: ).

Registered users get upgrade free. seventhstring.com

Craig

djangology

i just tried 7.5 and it wont play any of my video files. it will play the audio track out of a video file, but not the video.

it does seem that if you have an exact certain kind of video, it will probably let you play back a video slowly.

i have a core2duo quad with 4g of ram running at 2.7ghz and it was experiencing lots of problems with cpu power with a small 200gb video.

Klezmorim

djangology wrote:

i just tried 7.5 and it wont play any of my video files. it will play the audio track out of a video file, but not the video.

That reads like a possible CODEC problem. If you are working with AVI files, you may need to download and install the latest DIVX video codecs. Not all AVIs are created equal.

Craig Bumgarner

I don't think you mentioned what kind of file you were working with, but the Transcribe help files says it only works with .mp4 or .mov files. That was a problem for me because I wanted to use it on some of the DVDs I have. That meant converting the DVD to .mp4. Here's a tutorial I used successfully:

http://forum.videohelp.com/topic342793.html

Also, I found the explanation of DVD video file structure at the site below helpful in understand WHAT files you want to convert.

http://club.cdfreaks.com/f72/tutorial-d ... ure-77646/

The conversion process is slow. A 1-1/2 hour DVD takes me a couple hours to convert (4 year old Dell 2.2GHz, 2GB ram, XP Pro). The resulting .mp4 file is still pretty big (5-800 MB depending on video quality) and takes about a minute to load into Transcribe. Once loaded, though, it works quickly and smoothly. The video screen has an adjustment that helps to sync the sound and video. Once done, it seems to hold through various slow down settings and cycles. As with previous versions of Transcribe, it is best to reduce the number of other windows running, especially internet browsers and email clients which are processing frequently, to make for smooth playback. I notice having lots of memory helps.

The Google Videos website has a Download button that allows you to save the video in an mp4 format. Youtube does not and seems to be actively working at "breaking" third party utilities that endeavor to download from Youtube. Unfortunately, the large majority of GJ vids are on Youtube. If anyone has a method for saving Youtube files as .mp4, PLEASE let me know.

Oh, and you have to have Quicktime installed. Transcribe uses it for the video window. Quicktime is free from Apple on apple.com. If you use iTunes, you probably already have it as they are bundled together.


I've tried 7.5 on a dozen .mp4 video files so far. So far, I think it's pretty slick. It is funny to hear people talk at 50% slowdown though, they sound really drunk.

Craig