Transcribe Youtube Video

Transcribe Youtube Video

Transcribe Youtube Video


Many of us may not know, but YouTube comes with many useful features such as translation for title and description, and YouTube keyboard shortcuts etc. Similarly, there are ways you can transfer YouTube videos. Nowadays, speech recognition software has improved greatly, you can get a reliable automated transcription that can easily be edited to complete with any effort.

Moving a YouTube video is easy because YouTube automatically transmits the majority of videos as soon as they upload. In this post, I will show you some ways to get YouTube video transcriptions for free.

Note: It is impossible for the machine to submit the correct copy of any audio file. The accuracy you get will depend entirely on the noise and disturbances in the video. For example, if this is just a cool lecture in the classroom, then you should get a good transcript with more than 80% accuracy.


Method 1: Copy / Paste YouTube Transcript

Most of YouTube's videos are automatically viewed using Google's speech recognition technology. There is also an opportunity that the video owner may have transferred the video individually and it can be made available to the readers. Whatever the case, you can easily access the transcript and copy it with a timestamp. how to do this:



  • Click the Three dot button at the bottom of the video and select Transcript from the menu.

Transcribe Youtube Video


  • Below you will be asked to choose a language. Make your choice and you will see a complete transcript with a timestamp.


Now click and drag to spotlight all the text and press Ctrl + C to repeat the text. You can paste this text anywhere and your copy will be ready.


Transcribe Youtube Video

YouTube automatically highlights the words that can be wrong, making transcripts easier to edit. To enable the subtitle, simply click the CC button in the YouTube player and you will see the subtitle in white.
However, there may be some mistakes with the subtitle gray color. You can easily see it in transcription to make amendments. Although keep in mind that there will not be gray words in the subtitles uploaded by the video owner.


Method 2: Using a third-party service

If you want more control of video transcript and better structure, then you need to get the help of a third-party service.
There ar several websites wherever you'll paste the YouTube video address to urge a full transcript reciprocally. I recommend DIYCaptions for this purpose because it is easy to use and does not come with annoying redirects or popups.

These are basically two types of transcript extractors. For copying in a text format, and one for another copy. There is a timestamp along with the format. Simply paste the video URL in the text field of your required extractor and click on go.


Transcribe Youtube Video

 On the next page you will see the transcript that you can have  into your notepad or any editor.


Transcribe Youtube Video

If you want to edit transcript or download directly in your preferred format, DIYCaptions also provide a transcription pad. You can notice the transcription pad on the DIYCaptions home page. Simply enter the URL of your YouTube video there and click Go.


Transcribe Youtube Video


On the next page, you can control the playback of the video and see it alongside the text editor. There are buttons to view or download the tapes of the video.


Method 3: Transcript with Google Doc

The above two methods work fine when an automated or masters-uploaded copy of the YouTube video is available. However, if you want to broadcast a video without any available transcript, you can use Google Docs' built-in voice typing feature to listen to the video's audio and automatically type everything.

To be a good quality transcript, it is recommended to listen to the audio that comes from the speakers directly from the PC.

Here is how to do it:


  • In Windows, right-click the sound icon in the taskbar and select the recording tools.
Transcribe Youtube Video

  • Now select "Stereo Mix" from the list and click "Set default" to set as the default source for the recording.

If the stereo mix option is not supported by your PC's sound card (like mine), you can download and install the VB virtual audio cable tool and get an alternate option in the same menu.

After installing the device's drivers, you should see the "cable output" option in the same sound options. Select this selection then click on "Set Default".


After this, your PC will listen to the audio from the speaker for recording purposes. Now you just have to start typing Google Docs Voice Typing and start the necessary video together to start transcription.

how to do this:


  • Open Google Docs in Chrome or any other Chromium based browser (Voice typing is not supported in non-Chromium browser).
  • Now create a new document and select "Voice typing" from the Tools menu at the top.
Transcribe Youtube Video

  • A small box will appear in the middle with a microphone icon. Click on it to start recording.
  • Go to the YouTube Videos tab and play the video. Google Docs will be automatically typed when people speak in a YouTube video.
Transcribe Youtube Video


Of course, this process will take longer as the duration of the video, but in the end you will have a good transcript of the video. Google Docs Voice Typing also supports more than 40 languages, you can click on the Voice Typing Box menu to change the language.


The resulting transcript should be as good as YouTube's own automatic caption service, since both use the same speech recognition technology.


Conclusions and suggestions


I like to watch YouTube videos with captions, and I can confirm that YouTube's automatic captions are really good and make very few mistakes. Even small background noise videos are transcripted with great accuracy.


Of course, if you do not want to edit in your transcription or correct punctuation, you can always pay it to a professional to do this. On websites like Fiverr, you can get one hour video transcripted for only $ 20.
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