Transcribing from Video

Klezmorim · February 2008

Craig Bumgarner wrote:

If anyone has a method for saving Youtube files as .mp4, PLEASE let me know.

Take a look at http://www.zamzar.com/url/ It allows one to put in the YouTube URL and you select the output format (including MP4). It converts the video and allows you to save it on your PC.

Also, if you use Firefox (you mean you *don't*!?), look for the "DownloadHelper" plugin. It allows you to save the YouTube videos (which are a modified AVI format known as "FLV") to ypur PC. Then find and install SUPER (http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html) which will let you convert the FLV to the output format of your choice.

I've amassed a nice collection of YouTube-to-AVI videos this way.

Enjoy!

Craig Bumgarner · February 2008

Klez,

Thanks! I went to the erightsoft site which eventually took me to.....

http://www.dvdvideosoft.com/products/dv ... verter.htm

I downloaded the first item in the list

* Free YouTube to iPod and PSP Converter 2.8.6.1

This little program allows you to paste in the URL of the Youtube vid and then download and convert to a number of formats including mp4 all in one process. Tried it, worked great.

Thanks again!

Craig

frigiliana · February 2008

I found these useful, and free

http://www.aoamedia.com/ this one lets extract audio from video

Audacity is a programme i think similar to transcribe again it's free to download

Cheers Dave

Craig Bumgarner · February 2008

Dave,

frigiliana wrote:

Audacity is a programme i think similar to transcribe again it's free to download

Actually, they are different.

Transcribe is primarily a device to play and slow down audio for transcription purposes. Great program for that purpose. They have recently introduced a feature where by you can slow down video and the embedded audio in sync. Very helpful if you are trying to figure out how some one plays a certain part. Though it will record wav files, it isn't an editing program.

Audacity is an audio editing program for wav and mp3 files.

Craig

djangology · April 2008

the new version of Transcribe is able to slow down video. I tried it and it doesnt work very well. i think it only works well on certain specific types of video files and so you might need to convert the video using a tool such as "SUPER!" to convert it before you use Transcribe to slow it down...

clacos · April 2008

Hello,
I'm having decent result with Reaper and Mediacoder.

Reaper is a full featured multi track recording software similar to Cubase, Protools etc... but it's a 3Mo (yes 3Mo, about 30s download time) download and the demo is full-featured and uncrippled.
So you can try it very easily, for months if you wish, without any restrictions.
It has slowing down without altering pitch function and can have a video track.
I use it mainly to record rythm tracks at a decent tempo and then slowing it down to work out my arpegios at a speed i can manage (ridiculously low :? )
see it here : http://www.cockos.com/reaper/index.php
(sorry if i sound a bit like a fanboy, that's because i'm indeed one - this software is... okay, i'll shut up

)

I used mediacoder (it is freeware) to transcode the youtube video
http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net/

If somebody wants to try, here's what i have been doing, that's with this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FXVSCWMApM ,
Trio Rosenberg & Tim Kliphuis backstage playing Old Man River, posted by MarioMaccaferriRules, thanks to him for that gem !

Don't be discouraged by the length of my post, it is due to my bad english, and i tried to explain every step so that even a newcomer to multitrack recording software could follow it !

Transcoding the file :
- load the .flv in Mediacoder
- go to the video tab; in "format" choose Xvid, in "Container" Avi (disclaimer : i know nothing about codecs, this works on my mobo, you might need to experiment for your system, depending on the codecs that are installed or not on it)
- click on the 'start' menu button - then mediacoder will transcode the .flv and output an .avi in the same folder.

Playing it and slowing it down in Reaper :
- Start Reaper; on the top menu choose Insert/Media File... and choose the .avi => Reaper will insert a track, build the peak file (graphic representation of the waveform peaks), and insert the 'audio item' on that track.
- On the left of the transport bar (where are the stop/start etc.. buttons), you have the rate slider; right click on it and click on "Preserve pitch in audio items ...". While at it, move it to the left until the rate box indicate say, 0.7.
- Right click on the audio item and choose item properties; there in the 'pitch shifting/time stretch mode' choose "Elastic 2 Pro", (you might want to experiment with other algorythms here, if the result is not decent. This might depend on the song and instruments used - Elastic 2 is the latest and allegedly the best). Click OK to validate your change.
- Click on the View Menu, and click on "Show video window"
- Press space to play => the video will play at 70% of its speed, without altering pitch. You can resize the video, loop, put markers etc.. Or even record yourself on a second track if you want.

If you change the play rate while playing, i found that the sound will start to desynchronize with the video. The trick is to stop playing (hit the spacebar again), change the play rate, and start playing again. It works here.

Bones · May 2008

Here's what I do for anything that isn't copy protected (i.e. youtube). I used the Zamzar.com link to download the youtube video to my computer but it didn't have wmv format as an option so I used avi. On my windows media player I can slow down video if it is in wmv format so I downloaded windows media encoder which allows me to convert the avi to wmv and it works great! I can playback the video at as low as half speed with audio at the correct pitch. The only down side is I don't think that the encoder will go directly from a youtube url to wmv but I may be wrong.

djangology · May 2008

i just discovered that my version of PowerDVD will slow down DVD video. useful I think.

Bones · May 2008

Does anyone know how I can capture individual segments off of my Gypsy Project and Rosenberg DVDs and convert to wmv? I can't seem to get my Windows Media Encoder to recognize the individual song tracks on my DVDs. I can download stuff from Youtube but not from my DVDs.

Thanks