Getting the words from a video can be difficult when you have to type everything manually. This becomes even more frustrating when the video is an hour or more long and you also need to know exactly when each sentence was spoken.
Fortunately, you can use automatic transcription tools to turn the speech in a video into written text. Many of these tools can also add timestamps, making it easier to find a particular section of the video later.
A timestamped transcript is useful for interviews, meetings, lectures, podcasts, court videos, tutorials, research, subtitles, and content creation. Instead of repeatedly watching the same part of a video, you can search through the transcript and jump directly to the relevant section.
In this guide, you will learn several ways to extract a transcript from a video while keeping timestamps.
What Is a Timestamped Transcript?
A timestamped transcript is a written version of the speech in a video where each section of text is connected to a specific point in the recording.
00:00:03 Good morning, everyone. Today we are going to discuss how this process works. 00:00:12 Before we begin, let's look at the main problem we are trying to solve. 00:00:21 The first step is to collect all the information we need.
The timestamp tells you where that part of the conversation occurs in the video. This is especially useful when working with long recordings.
Method 1: Use Subtitle Edit on Windows
Subtitle Edit is a free, open-source subtitle editor that can also transcribe speech from video and audio files. Its current speech-to-text features support several engines, including Whisper-based options and other speech recognition engines.
This is one of the better choices if you want to process a video directly on your Windows computer rather than uploading the recording to an online service.
Step 1: Download Subtitle Edit
Visit the official Subtitle Edit GitHub page and download the appropriate version for your computer.
After installing it, open the application.
Step 2: Open the video
Open Subtitle Edit and load the video you want to transcribe.
Once the video is loaded, Subtitle Edit can work with its audio and create subtitle entries based on the speech in the recording.
Step 3: Open Speech to Text
In Subtitle Edit, go to Video → Speech to text....
You can then select a supported speech-recognition engine, choose the appropriate model and select the language spoken in the video. The current Subtitle Edit documentation confirms that this workflow can automatically transcribe audio to text.
Step 4: Start the transcription
Click Transcribe and allow the software to process the recording.
Subtitle Edit generates subtitle lines with timing information. This means the resulting text can be synchronized with the original video instead of being delivered as one large block of text.
Step 5: Check the transcript
Automatic transcription is not always perfect. Background noise, multiple speakers, accents, poor microphone quality, and people speaking over one another can cause mistakes.
Read through the generated transcript and correct obvious errors. You can also adjust subtitle timings if a sentence starts too early or too late.
Step 6: Save the transcript
When you are satisfied with the result, save the subtitles as an SRT file or another supported subtitle format.
An SRT file is particularly useful because it stores the spoken text together with the start and end times of each subtitle section.
Method 2: Use Descript to Transcribe a Video
Descript is an online video and audio editing platform that can automatically transcribe uploaded video files. It supports timecodes and speaker labels and allows transcripts to be exported in formats such as DOCX, TXT, HTML, Markdown, and RTF.
This can be a convenient choice if you prefer a browser-based workflow instead of installing a desktop transcription program.
How to use Descript
- Open the Descript video transcript tool.
- Create or open a Descript project.
- Upload your video file.
- Select the language of the recording.
- Allow Descript to generate the transcript.
- Review and correct the transcript.
- Export the transcript in the format you need.
Descript can also generate subtitle files such as SRT and VTT, which makes it useful when your goal is to keep the transcript synchronized with the video.
Method 3: Use Otter.ai for Video Transcription
Otter.ai is another transcription service that can process existing audio and video recordings.
According to Otter's current help documentation, you can import an audio or video file from your computer and allow Otter to process the speech into a transcript.
How to use Otter
- Go to Otter.ai.
- Sign in to your account.
- Choose the option to import a recording.
- Select your video or audio file.
- Wait for Otter to process the recording.
- Open the generated transcript.
- Review the transcript and correct mistakes.
Otter also provides speaker-related features, which can be useful when a recording contains a conversation between several people.
If you are working with a YouTube video, Otter currently recommends downloading the video and importing the resulting file rather than simply pasting a YouTube URL into Otter.
Method 4: Use YouTube's Built-In Transcript
If the video is already on YouTube and has captions, you may not need another transcription tool at all.
YouTube provides a transcript feature for videos that have captions. You can open the video's description and select Show transcript. The transcript can then be used to find specific sections of the video, and clicking a line can take you to that part of the recording.
How to view a YouTube transcript
- Open the video on YouTube.
- Open the video description.
- Look for Show transcript.
- Open the transcript.
- Click a timestamp or line of text to jump to that part of the video.
This is probably the fastest method when you only need to read or reference a transcript from an existing YouTube video.
Method 5: Extract Existing Subtitles
Sometimes you do not need to transcribe the video at all. The video may already contain a subtitle or caption track.
If you already have an SRT file, for example, it may look like this:
1 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:08,500 Welcome to today's presentation. 2 00:00:08,500 --> 00:00:12,000 We will start by looking at the main topic.
The first number identifies the subtitle entry, while the two timestamps show when the text begins and ends.
You can keep the SRT file if you need synchronized subtitles, or clean the file and remove the timing information if you only want a normal text transcript.
How to Keep Timestamps When Converting the Transcript to Text
One common problem is accidentally removing the timestamps when converting a subtitle file into plain text.
If you need the timestamps, keep the time information with each section.
A readable transcript can use a format like this:
[00:01:15] Speaker 1: We received the report this morning. [00:01:28] Speaker 2: What did the report say? [00:01:34] Speaker 1: It confirmed that the system was working normally.
This format is easier to read than a standard subtitle file while still allowing you to locate the original section of the video.
What If the Video Has No Captions?
You can still create a transcript if the video has no subtitles.
In this situation, you need a speech-to-text tool that can listen to the video's audio and generate the text automatically.
Subtitle Edit is particularly useful for this because it can run several speech-to-text engines, including local Whisper-based options.
Online services such as Descript and Otter.ai are alternatives if you prefer uploading the recording to an online service.
When choosing a tool, look for features such as:
- Video or audio file upload
- Automatic speech recognition
- Timestamped transcription
- Multiple language support
- SRT or VTT export
- TXT or DOCX export
- Speaker identification
- Support for long recordings
How to Get Better Transcription Results
Automatic transcription works best when the audio is clear. If the video contains loud background music or constant noise, the software may misunderstand some words.
Use the highest-quality video available
A higher-quality source can sometimes provide cleaner audio. If you have several versions of the same recording, use the one with the clearest sound.
Choose the correct language
Always select the correct language before starting transcription when the software gives you that option.
Choosing the wrong language can produce a transcript filled with incorrect words.
Review names and technical terms
Speech recognition systems can struggle with names, locations, legal terms, technical vocabulary, and unusual words.
After transcription, search through the document for important names and terms and verify them against the original video.
Check the timestamps
Do not assume every timestamp is perfect. Listen to random sections of the video and compare them with the transcript.
If the timing becomes inaccurate, adjust the subtitle timing before exporting the final file.
Which Format Should You Use?
| Format | Best for |
|---|---|
| SRT | Subtitles and timestamped dialogue |
| VTT | Web video captions |
| TXT | Simple, clean text transcripts |
| DOCX | Editing and preparing a document |
If your main goal is to preserve timestamps, SRT or VTT is usually more useful than a plain TXT file.
Can You Extract a Transcript From a Very Long Video?
Yes. Long videos can be transcribed, although processing time depends on the tool, the length of the recording, the quality of the audio, and whether the transcription is being performed locally or online.
For very long recordings, it can sometimes be easier to split the video into smaller sections before transcription. For example, a two-hour recording could be divided into several shorter files.
This can make it easier to identify transcription errors and work with individual sections.
Why You Should Review an Automatically Generated Transcript
Automatic transcription can save a huge amount of time, but it should not be treated as a perfect copy of the audio.
A system may confuse similar-sounding words, miss short phrases, combine speakers, or place punctuation incorrectly. The problem can become more noticeable when several people are talking at the same time.
For important documents, always compare the transcript with the original video before publishing or relying on it.
Final Thoughts
Extracting a transcript from a video with timestamps is much easier than typing everything manually. If you are using Windows, Subtitle Edit is a useful option for generating and editing timestamped subtitles. If you prefer a browser-based service, Descript and Otter.ai are alternatives.
If the video already has captions, YouTube's built-in Show transcript feature can be the quickest solution.
For long recordings, a practical workflow is to generate the transcript automatically, save it as an SRT or VTT file, review the important sections, and then convert or clean the text if you need a readable document.
With the right transcription method, even a long video can be turned into searchable text without spending hours typing every sentence manually.
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