Introduction
I am looking for good transcription software to add to my second brain system.
If I was english, the easy choice would have been otter.ai.
But I am italian, so that’s not so easy.
If you are not an english native like me, this article is for you.
Here are my requirements:
- automatic transcription from an audio or video file upload
- the software should be able to translate from both italian and english language.
I discarded all the software that
- ask for a payment minute-based
- ask for more than $10/month
- provide just a manual transcription
I am on the second brain journey for some months, and I am focused to build a second brain without investing too much money.
If you are interested you can get more details in my previous article “How much is a Second Brain”.
About that: I am trying to validate a PKM idea/startup called ZenPKM and I’m looking to talk with passionate like yourself about the subject.
Here is my project
https://yep.so/p/zenpkm?ref=medium
For my test, I had an MP4 file recorded (via OBS) from a video call in the italian language, which duration is about 30 minutes.
Are you ready? Here we go!
Free
Welder
this software was so promising.
It offers video and audio transcripts. Free and unlimited. So I gave it a chance.
I don’t know for which reason, but I thinked it was able to translate from many languages.
It seems it is able to translate just from english.
In fact, the final result produced just an english word. Even wrong.
Veed.io
This too seemed to be very promising.
I tested more options:
- Transcribe video The website says “Transcribe audio and video to text online. Automatic transcription in just one click”. Wow!
I found myself in an online video editor, rich in (too many) features, such as adding transitions/texts/elements to the video.
But I didn’t find any button talking about “automatic transcriptions”. - Video to text The website says “Transcribe your videos to text, add subtitles, and more. Online, easy to use”.
I found myself on that web editor again. Still no transcription. - Audio to Text The website says “Transcribe speech to text. Automatic audio transcription online, in a few clicks”.
I found myself on that web editor for the third time. Still no transcription.
Media.io
I hope to be luckier here. Media.io talks about “Free Online Audio Converter”
I tried the Auto transcription feature.
So I upload my file, but it was too big (153 MB).
I discovered that the Free plan is Up to 100MB upload for the converter. And 2000 characters for Text-to-speech.
In my humble opinion, there are too many limitations to be a free plan.
YouTube automatic transcription
I remembered that YouTube videos provide a good transcription for free.
But I was not able to get it on my test.
Maybe because the language of my YouTube channel is configured as english, but I uploaded a file with italian speaking.
Or the reason was I set it as a private one.
Not Free — Appsumo lifetime deals
Noota (Noota)
At the moment which I am writing, the deal could be ended.
I didn’t try it. But it looks interesting.
With the “License Tier 1” you pay $69, one time, forever, and you get 5 hours of transcription and subtitling per month
Knowtworthy
It seems similar to Noota:
you purchase it for $59, lifetime, and you get 60 transcription hours per month!
Not Free — special mentions
Transkriptor
This software is promising. You pay $9.99/mese for 5hours of transcriptions per month.
The free plan is very limited, but I felt the good potential it has.
The Transkriptor Trial version can view the first 5 minutes of audio files.
I selected the italian language and the beta function “separated speakers”:
the output confused a speaker as 2 different, but not a big problem for me.
I was surprised by the good output of this software.
You can export the transcriptions in many formats (txt, srt, word, clipboard).
Descript
I had very good results with this software.
You can try out Descript with 3 hours of free transcription.
The very first paid plan starts from $12 a month, which includes 10 hours of transcription each month.
Conclusions
I am so sad about the results of my test.
Especially for the free software. I saw too many limitations, and not maintained promises.
Maybe I just was so unlucky?
I really was surprised by the good output by Transkriptor.
And even happier with Descript. But that’s too much for me.
This technology looks to be still too expensive.
I think I would need 2 or 3 hours of transcriptions per month.
I really don’t know whether it is more convenient to pay a few cents per minute for transcription (with $0.25/minute, you would pay around $11 to transcribe 45 minutes).
It seems no ($33 per month would be $400 each year).To pay a $100 yearly subscription seems to be the standard price of the market.
Are you not an english native like me? Which software do you use? Let me know in the comments.
Thanks for reading, and if you liked this article, consider following me, or clap 😊
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