:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(webp)/laptop-2443739-5b55bc7c46e0fb00378df55b.jpg)
"2024 Approved Navigating the Digital Landscape FREE Tools for YouTube Audio to Text"
Navigating the Digital Landscape: FREE Tools for YouTube Audio to Text
How to Transcribe a YouTube Video for FREE
Richard Bennett
Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions
If you want to transcribe your videos to make the dialogs and speeches available in text format, you can use YouTube Transcribe feature that the streaming site offers for free. In this article, I’ll share with you a couple of methods to transcribe a YouTube video for free.
- Part 1: Transcribe YouTube Video Automatically for Free [2 Ways]
- Part 2: Transcribe YouTube Video to Text Online with Third-Party Service
- Part 3: Benefits of Transcribing YouTube Videos
- Part 4: YouTube Video Transcription FAQs
Part 1: How to Transcribe YouTube Video Automatically for Free [2 Ways]
Besides the basic video editing features on the YouTube platform, you can now quickly transcribe YouTube videos to the text as well. The good thing is, you can either use the automatic transcription feature that YouTube offers, or upload it manually while adjusting the timing as you go further.
Below are the two methods to transcribe your YouTube videos for free:
Method 1: Use the Automated Transcription Service on YouTube
As the name suggests, YouTube automatic transcription service works automatically. This means you don’t even have to click the ‘Transcribe’ button anymore to transcribe a YouTube video, and the website takes care of it on its own. All you need to do is, choose English as the language of the video when setting up subtitles. You can follow the instructions given below to do so:
Step 1 Upload a Video
Sign in to your YouTube account, click your profile picture from the top-right corner, and click YouTube Studio from the menu. Next, click CREATE from the upper-right corner, click Upload videos from the menu, and drag and drop a video from your computer to the Upload videos box that appears next.
Step 2 Select Transcription Language
On the Details page of the next box that appears, scroll down and click MORE OPTIONS, and select English in the Video language drop-down list under the Language, subtitles, and closed captions (CC) section.
Step 3 Publish the Video
Follow the on-screen instructions from this point to publish the video, and wait while YouTube automatically transcribes and adds the close captions to it.
Note: Depending on the duration of the clip, the time YouTube would take to transcribe may vary.
After YouTube has transcribed the video, you can download the transcription file in your preferred format. The instructions are given below explain how you can do so:
- Get to the Subtitles Window
While on the YouTube Studio page, click Subtitles from the left pane to go to the Channel subtitles page. And then click the video you want to modify.
- Get to Classic Studio
In the video subtitle page of the target video, hover mouse on the Published Automatic status under the Subtitles column, click the Options icon (with three vertical dots) that appears, and click Edit on Classic Studio.
- Download Transcription File
Click and open the Actions drop-down list from the top-left corner of the left pane, click your preferred transcription format including .vtt, .srt and .sbv from the list, and save the file on your local hard disk.
Method 2: Get YouTube Transcription when Watching
In addition, if you are watching any other video, you can make YouTube transcribe that for you as well. You can follow the instructions given below to get the YouTube video to text transcription:
Step 1: Play the Video
Go to the video on YouTube and start playing it. Make sure NOT to get to full-screen mode as doing so would hide the option to transcribe the clip.
Step 2: Enable Transcription
Click the More icon (with three horizontal dots) from under the bottom-right corner of the video player, and click Open transcript to see the video transcription in the Transcript pane that appears in the right.
Step 3: Manage Timestamps
Click the Options icon (with three vertical dots) from the top-right corner of the Transcript pane, and click Toggle timestamp to enable or disable the timestamps in the video transcription.
Limitations of Using YouTube Transcribe
Although YouTube’s automatic transcription is a decent feature that saves you a lot of time, since Google uses machine learning algorithms to convert the speech to text, the level of accuracy may vary depending on the accent of the speaker, and the clarity of the audio the video has. Also, even sometime you may not be satisfied with the end-results.
Alternatively, you can use Kapwing to transcribe a YouTube video and download the transcription file with the below step-by-step instructions:
Step 1: Add YouTube Video
Copy the URL of YouTube video you want to transcribe, go to https://www.kapwing.com/subtitles , paste the URL in the Paste a URL field, wait while Kapwing fetches the content of the video, and opens the Add subtitles to Video page.
Step 2: Transcribe the Video
Click Auto-generate from the right window, and follow the on-screen instructions to transcribe YouTube video to text.
Step 3: Download the Transcription File
Click Download SRT from the left pane, and follow the instructions from there to download the transcription file in *.srt format.
Pros
- Kapwing is free to use
- The auto-transcription process is quick and less tedious
- Kapwing also allows manual transcription and uploading of an existing *.srt file
Cons
- The auto-transcribed text might lack accuracy as the task is done by the speech-to-text tools that work in the background
You can follow the step-by-step instructions to transcribe a YouTube video and download the transcription file using Kapwing:
Step 1: Add YouTube Video
Copy the URL of YouTube video you want to transcribe, go to https://www.kapwing.com/subtitles , paste the URL in the Paste a URL field, wait while Kapwing fetches the content of the video, and opens the Add subtitles to Video page.
Step 2: Transcribe the Video
Click Auto-generate from the right window, and follow the on-screen instructions to transcribe YouTube video to text.
Step 3: Download the Transcription File
Click Download SRT from the left pane, and follow the instructions from there to download the transcription file in *.srt format.
Pros
- Kapwing is free to use
- The auto-transcription process is quick and less tedious
- Kapwing also allows manual transcription and uploading of an existing *.srt file
Cons
- The auto-transcribed text might lack accuracy as the task is done by the speech-to-text tools that work in the background
Part 3: Benefits of Transcribing YouTube Videos
You may need video transcriptions for several reasons, such as analyzing the summary of the entire speech in the video, extracting a single phrase or quote that was spoken in the clip, or making the video helpful even for those suffering from hearing impairment. When you transcribe a YouTube video, the transcript can be useful in many ways. Some of the most common benefits of transcribing a video include:
- Search Engine Optimization
When you add subtitles, the text can appear in Google search results when someone types a similar phrase in the search box. This helps get more views to your videos, thus giving your channel popularity, and you, monetary gains in the long run.
- Accent
If the speaker in the video is from a different region and is using an accent that you are not much comfortable with, you can turn on the subtitles and read the dialogs along with the video.
- Repurposing on Blogs
If you own a blog that you have embedded your video to, the transcription could be used to add text to it so the target audience can get a fair idea of what the video is all about. This is useful because many people prefer reading over watching.
YouTube Video Transcription FAQs
1. How to Transcribe YouTube Video to Text
Usually the transcription files have *.srt extension that are globally accepted and supported by almost all media players. However, there might be instances when you want to have the subtitles in plain text.
That said, to convert an SRT file to TXT, you can:
- Right-click the SRT file
- Go to Rename
- Replace srt with txt and press Enter
- Click OK on the confirmation box that appears next to convert SRT to TXT
After this, you can simply double-click the file, and read and modify the transcribed content as needed.
2. How to Edit and Upload Edited Transcript to YouTube
If you made any modifications to the transcript that was automatically generated by YouTube or any other third-party transcription tool, you can follow the steps given below to upload the new file to the YouTube video:
- Go to YouTube Studio and then to the Channel subtitles page as explained earlier
- Expand the Languages column of the target video
- Click the Options icon that appears under the Subtitles column when you hover mouse on to it
- Click Edit on Classic Studio
- On the next page, click Edit from the top-right corner
- Click to open the Actions drop-down list from the upper-left corner
- Click Upload a file
- Follow the on-screen instructions from there to upload the modified transcription file
- Click Save Changes from the top-right corner of the page when done
Conclusion
If you are looking for a quick and easy way of adding subtitles to your videos, letting YouTube transcribe for you could be a good approach. However, because these auto-generated transcriptions are created by machine learning algorithms, their accuracy cannot be counted on. Therefore, the best way to get the job done accurately is, let YouTube auto-transcribe your video, download the transcription file, make the necessary changes to it, and then upload the file back to the video.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions
If you want to transcribe your videos to make the dialogs and speeches available in text format, you can use YouTube Transcribe feature that the streaming site offers for free. In this article, I’ll share with you a couple of methods to transcribe a YouTube video for free.
- Part 1: Transcribe YouTube Video Automatically for Free [2 Ways]
- Part 2: Transcribe YouTube Video to Text Online with Third-Party Service
- Part 3: Benefits of Transcribing YouTube Videos
- Part 4: YouTube Video Transcription FAQs
Part 1: How to Transcribe YouTube Video Automatically for Free [2 Ways]
Besides the basic video editing features on the YouTube platform, you can now quickly transcribe YouTube videos to the text as well. The good thing is, you can either use the automatic transcription feature that YouTube offers, or upload it manually while adjusting the timing as you go further.
Below are the two methods to transcribe your YouTube videos for free:
Method 1: Use the Automated Transcription Service on YouTube
As the name suggests, YouTube automatic transcription service works automatically. This means you don’t even have to click the ‘Transcribe’ button anymore to transcribe a YouTube video, and the website takes care of it on its own. All you need to do is, choose English as the language of the video when setting up subtitles. You can follow the instructions given below to do so:
Step 1 Upload a Video
Sign in to your YouTube account, click your profile picture from the top-right corner, and click YouTube Studio from the menu. Next, click CREATE from the upper-right corner, click Upload videos from the menu, and drag and drop a video from your computer to the Upload videos box that appears next.
Step 2 Select Transcription Language
On the Details page of the next box that appears, scroll down and click MORE OPTIONS, and select English in the Video language drop-down list under the Language, subtitles, and closed captions (CC) section.
Step 3 Publish the Video
Follow the on-screen instructions from this point to publish the video, and wait while YouTube automatically transcribes and adds the close captions to it.
Note: Depending on the duration of the clip, the time YouTube would take to transcribe may vary.
After YouTube has transcribed the video, you can download the transcription file in your preferred format. The instructions are given below explain how you can do so:
- Get to the Subtitles Window
While on the YouTube Studio page, click Subtitles from the left pane to go to the Channel subtitles page. And then click the video you want to modify.
- Get to Classic Studio
In the video subtitle page of the target video, hover mouse on the Published Automatic status under the Subtitles column, click the Options icon (with three vertical dots) that appears, and click Edit on Classic Studio.
- Download Transcription File
Click and open the Actions drop-down list from the top-left corner of the left pane, click your preferred transcription format including .vtt, .srt and .sbv from the list, and save the file on your local hard disk.
Method 2: Get YouTube Transcription when Watching
In addition, if you are watching any other video, you can make YouTube transcribe that for you as well. You can follow the instructions given below to get the YouTube video to text transcription:
Step 1: Play the Video
Go to the video on YouTube and start playing it. Make sure NOT to get to full-screen mode as doing so would hide the option to transcribe the clip.
Step 2: Enable Transcription
Click the More icon (with three horizontal dots) from under the bottom-right corner of the video player, and click Open transcript to see the video transcription in the Transcript pane that appears in the right.
Step 3: Manage Timestamps
Click the Options icon (with three vertical dots) from the top-right corner of the Transcript pane, and click Toggle timestamp to enable or disable the timestamps in the video transcription.
Limitations of Using YouTube Transcribe
Although YouTube’s automatic transcription is a decent feature that saves you a lot of time, since Google uses machine learning algorithms to convert the speech to text, the level of accuracy may vary depending on the accent of the speaker, and the clarity of the audio the video has. Also, even sometime you may not be satisfied with the end-results.
Alternatively, you can use Kapwing to transcribe a YouTube video and download the transcription file with the below step-by-step instructions:
Step 1: Add YouTube Video
Copy the URL of YouTube video you want to transcribe, go to https://www.kapwing.com/subtitles , paste the URL in the Paste a URL field, wait while Kapwing fetches the content of the video, and opens the Add subtitles to Video page.
Step 2: Transcribe the Video
Click Auto-generate from the right window, and follow the on-screen instructions to transcribe YouTube video to text.
Step 3: Download the Transcription File
Click Download SRT from the left pane, and follow the instructions from there to download the transcription file in *.srt format.
Pros
- Kapwing is free to use
- The auto-transcription process is quick and less tedious
- Kapwing also allows manual transcription and uploading of an existing *.srt file
Cons
- The auto-transcribed text might lack accuracy as the task is done by the speech-to-text tools that work in the background
You can follow the step-by-step instructions to transcribe a YouTube video and download the transcription file using Kapwing:
Step 1: Add YouTube Video
Copy the URL of YouTube video you want to transcribe, go to https://www.kapwing.com/subtitles , paste the URL in the Paste a URL field, wait while Kapwing fetches the content of the video, and opens the Add subtitles to Video page.
Step 2: Transcribe the Video
Click Auto-generate from the right window, and follow the on-screen instructions to transcribe YouTube video to text.
Step 3: Download the Transcription File
Click Download SRT from the left pane, and follow the instructions from there to download the transcription file in *.srt format.
Pros
- Kapwing is free to use
- The auto-transcription process is quick and less tedious
- Kapwing also allows manual transcription and uploading of an existing *.srt file
Cons
- The auto-transcribed text might lack accuracy as the task is done by the speech-to-text tools that work in the background
Part 3: Benefits of Transcribing YouTube Videos
You may need video transcriptions for several reasons, such as analyzing the summary of the entire speech in the video, extracting a single phrase or quote that was spoken in the clip, or making the video helpful even for those suffering from hearing impairment. When you transcribe a YouTube video, the transcript can be useful in many ways. Some of the most common benefits of transcribing a video include:
- Search Engine Optimization
When you add subtitles, the text can appear in Google search results when someone types a similar phrase in the search box. This helps get more views to your videos, thus giving your channel popularity, and you, monetary gains in the long run.
- Accent
If the speaker in the video is from a different region and is using an accent that you are not much comfortable with, you can turn on the subtitles and read the dialogs along with the video.
- Repurposing on Blogs
If you own a blog that you have embedded your video to, the transcription could be used to add text to it so the target audience can get a fair idea of what the video is all about. This is useful because many people prefer reading over watching.
YouTube Video Transcription FAQs
1. How to Transcribe YouTube Video to Text
Usually the transcription files have *.srt extension that are globally accepted and supported by almost all media players. However, there might be instances when you want to have the subtitles in plain text.
That said, to convert an SRT file to TXT, you can:
- Right-click the SRT file
- Go to Rename
- Replace srt with txt and press Enter
- Click OK on the confirmation box that appears next to convert SRT to TXT
After this, you can simply double-click the file, and read and modify the transcribed content as needed.
2. How to Edit and Upload Edited Transcript to YouTube
If you made any modifications to the transcript that was automatically generated by YouTube or any other third-party transcription tool, you can follow the steps given below to upload the new file to the YouTube video:
- Go to YouTube Studio and then to the Channel subtitles page as explained earlier
- Expand the Languages column of the target video
- Click the Options icon that appears under the Subtitles column when you hover mouse on to it
- Click Edit on Classic Studio
- On the next page, click Edit from the top-right corner
- Click to open the Actions drop-down list from the upper-left corner
- Click Upload a file
- Follow the on-screen instructions from there to upload the modified transcription file
- Click Save Changes from the top-right corner of the page when done
Conclusion
If you are looking for a quick and easy way of adding subtitles to your videos, letting YouTube transcribe for you could be a good approach. However, because these auto-generated transcriptions are created by machine learning algorithms, their accuracy cannot be counted on. Therefore, the best way to get the job done accurately is, let YouTube auto-transcribe your video, download the transcription file, make the necessary changes to it, and then upload the file back to the video.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions
If you want to transcribe your videos to make the dialogs and speeches available in text format, you can use YouTube Transcribe feature that the streaming site offers for free. In this article, I’ll share with you a couple of methods to transcribe a YouTube video for free.
- Part 1: Transcribe YouTube Video Automatically for Free [2 Ways]
- Part 2: Transcribe YouTube Video to Text Online with Third-Party Service
- Part 3: Benefits of Transcribing YouTube Videos
- Part 4: YouTube Video Transcription FAQs
Part 1: How to Transcribe YouTube Video Automatically for Free [2 Ways]
Besides the basic video editing features on the YouTube platform, you can now quickly transcribe YouTube videos to the text as well. The good thing is, you can either use the automatic transcription feature that YouTube offers, or upload it manually while adjusting the timing as you go further.
Below are the two methods to transcribe your YouTube videos for free:
Method 1: Use the Automated Transcription Service on YouTube
As the name suggests, YouTube automatic transcription service works automatically. This means you don’t even have to click the ‘Transcribe’ button anymore to transcribe a YouTube video, and the website takes care of it on its own. All you need to do is, choose English as the language of the video when setting up subtitles. You can follow the instructions given below to do so:
Step 1 Upload a Video
Sign in to your YouTube account, click your profile picture from the top-right corner, and click YouTube Studio from the menu. Next, click CREATE from the upper-right corner, click Upload videos from the menu, and drag and drop a video from your computer to the Upload videos box that appears next.
Step 2 Select Transcription Language
On the Details page of the next box that appears, scroll down and click MORE OPTIONS, and select English in the Video language drop-down list under the Language, subtitles, and closed captions (CC) section.
Step 3 Publish the Video
Follow the on-screen instructions from this point to publish the video, and wait while YouTube automatically transcribes and adds the close captions to it.
Note: Depending on the duration of the clip, the time YouTube would take to transcribe may vary.
After YouTube has transcribed the video, you can download the transcription file in your preferred format. The instructions are given below explain how you can do so:
- Get to the Subtitles Window
While on the YouTube Studio page, click Subtitles from the left pane to go to the Channel subtitles page. And then click the video you want to modify.
- Get to Classic Studio
In the video subtitle page of the target video, hover mouse on the Published Automatic status under the Subtitles column, click the Options icon (with three vertical dots) that appears, and click Edit on Classic Studio.
- Download Transcription File
Click and open the Actions drop-down list from the top-left corner of the left pane, click your preferred transcription format including .vtt, .srt and .sbv from the list, and save the file on your local hard disk.
Method 2: Get YouTube Transcription when Watching
In addition, if you are watching any other video, you can make YouTube transcribe that for you as well. You can follow the instructions given below to get the YouTube video to text transcription:
Step 1: Play the Video
Go to the video on YouTube and start playing it. Make sure NOT to get to full-screen mode as doing so would hide the option to transcribe the clip.
Step 2: Enable Transcription
Click the More icon (with three horizontal dots) from under the bottom-right corner of the video player, and click Open transcript to see the video transcription in the Transcript pane that appears in the right.
Step 3: Manage Timestamps
Click the Options icon (with three vertical dots) from the top-right corner of the Transcript pane, and click Toggle timestamp to enable or disable the timestamps in the video transcription.
Limitations of Using YouTube Transcribe
Although YouTube’s automatic transcription is a decent feature that saves you a lot of time, since Google uses machine learning algorithms to convert the speech to text, the level of accuracy may vary depending on the accent of the speaker, and the clarity of the audio the video has. Also, even sometime you may not be satisfied with the end-results.
Alternatively, you can use Kapwing to transcribe a YouTube video and download the transcription file with the below step-by-step instructions:
Step 1: Add YouTube Video
Copy the URL of YouTube video you want to transcribe, go to https://www.kapwing.com/subtitles , paste the URL in the Paste a URL field, wait while Kapwing fetches the content of the video, and opens the Add subtitles to Video page.
Step 2: Transcribe the Video
Click Auto-generate from the right window, and follow the on-screen instructions to transcribe YouTube video to text.
Step 3: Download the Transcription File
Click Download SRT from the left pane, and follow the instructions from there to download the transcription file in *.srt format.
Pros
- Kapwing is free to use
- The auto-transcription process is quick and less tedious
- Kapwing also allows manual transcription and uploading of an existing *.srt file
Cons
- The auto-transcribed text might lack accuracy as the task is done by the speech-to-text tools that work in the background
You can follow the step-by-step instructions to transcribe a YouTube video and download the transcription file using Kapwing:
Step 1: Add YouTube Video
Copy the URL of YouTube video you want to transcribe, go to https://www.kapwing.com/subtitles , paste the URL in the Paste a URL field, wait while Kapwing fetches the content of the video, and opens the Add subtitles to Video page.
Step 2: Transcribe the Video
Click Auto-generate from the right window, and follow the on-screen instructions to transcribe YouTube video to text.
Step 3: Download the Transcription File
Click Download SRT from the left pane, and follow the instructions from there to download the transcription file in *.srt format.
Pros
- Kapwing is free to use
- The auto-transcription process is quick and less tedious
- Kapwing also allows manual transcription and uploading of an existing *.srt file
Cons
- The auto-transcribed text might lack accuracy as the task is done by the speech-to-text tools that work in the background
Part 3: Benefits of Transcribing YouTube Videos
You may need video transcriptions for several reasons, such as analyzing the summary of the entire speech in the video, extracting a single phrase or quote that was spoken in the clip, or making the video helpful even for those suffering from hearing impairment. When you transcribe a YouTube video, the transcript can be useful in many ways. Some of the most common benefits of transcribing a video include:
- Search Engine Optimization
When you add subtitles, the text can appear in Google search results when someone types a similar phrase in the search box. This helps get more views to your videos, thus giving your channel popularity, and you, monetary gains in the long run.
- Accent
If the speaker in the video is from a different region and is using an accent that you are not much comfortable with, you can turn on the subtitles and read the dialogs along with the video.
- Repurposing on Blogs
If you own a blog that you have embedded your video to, the transcription could be used to add text to it so the target audience can get a fair idea of what the video is all about. This is useful because many people prefer reading over watching.
YouTube Video Transcription FAQs
1. How to Transcribe YouTube Video to Text
Usually the transcription files have *.srt extension that are globally accepted and supported by almost all media players. However, there might be instances when you want to have the subtitles in plain text.
That said, to convert an SRT file to TXT, you can:
- Right-click the SRT file
- Go to Rename
- Replace srt with txt and press Enter
- Click OK on the confirmation box that appears next to convert SRT to TXT
After this, you can simply double-click the file, and read and modify the transcribed content as needed.
2. How to Edit and Upload Edited Transcript to YouTube
If you made any modifications to the transcript that was automatically generated by YouTube or any other third-party transcription tool, you can follow the steps given below to upload the new file to the YouTube video:
- Go to YouTube Studio and then to the Channel subtitles page as explained earlier
- Expand the Languages column of the target video
- Click the Options icon that appears under the Subtitles column when you hover mouse on to it
- Click Edit on Classic Studio
- On the next page, click Edit from the top-right corner
- Click to open the Actions drop-down list from the upper-left corner
- Click Upload a file
- Follow the on-screen instructions from there to upload the modified transcription file
- Click Save Changes from the top-right corner of the page when done
Conclusion
If you are looking for a quick and easy way of adding subtitles to your videos, letting YouTube transcribe for you could be a good approach. However, because these auto-generated transcriptions are created by machine learning algorithms, their accuracy cannot be counted on. Therefore, the best way to get the job done accurately is, let YouTube auto-transcribe your video, download the transcription file, make the necessary changes to it, and then upload the file back to the video.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions
If you want to transcribe your videos to make the dialogs and speeches available in text format, you can use YouTube Transcribe feature that the streaming site offers for free. In this article, I’ll share with you a couple of methods to transcribe a YouTube video for free.
- Part 1: Transcribe YouTube Video Automatically for Free [2 Ways]
- Part 2: Transcribe YouTube Video to Text Online with Third-Party Service
- Part 3: Benefits of Transcribing YouTube Videos
- Part 4: YouTube Video Transcription FAQs
Part 1: How to Transcribe YouTube Video Automatically for Free [2 Ways]
Besides the basic video editing features on the YouTube platform, you can now quickly transcribe YouTube videos to the text as well. The good thing is, you can either use the automatic transcription feature that YouTube offers, or upload it manually while adjusting the timing as you go further.
Below are the two methods to transcribe your YouTube videos for free:
Method 1: Use the Automated Transcription Service on YouTube
As the name suggests, YouTube automatic transcription service works automatically. This means you don’t even have to click the ‘Transcribe’ button anymore to transcribe a YouTube video, and the website takes care of it on its own. All you need to do is, choose English as the language of the video when setting up subtitles. You can follow the instructions given below to do so:
Step 1 Upload a Video
Sign in to your YouTube account, click your profile picture from the top-right corner, and click YouTube Studio from the menu. Next, click CREATE from the upper-right corner, click Upload videos from the menu, and drag and drop a video from your computer to the Upload videos box that appears next.
Step 2 Select Transcription Language
On the Details page of the next box that appears, scroll down and click MORE OPTIONS, and select English in the Video language drop-down list under the Language, subtitles, and closed captions (CC) section.
Step 3 Publish the Video
Follow the on-screen instructions from this point to publish the video, and wait while YouTube automatically transcribes and adds the close captions to it.
Note: Depending on the duration of the clip, the time YouTube would take to transcribe may vary.
After YouTube has transcribed the video, you can download the transcription file in your preferred format. The instructions are given below explain how you can do so:
- Get to the Subtitles Window
While on the YouTube Studio page, click Subtitles from the left pane to go to the Channel subtitles page. And then click the video you want to modify.
- Get to Classic Studio
In the video subtitle page of the target video, hover mouse on the Published Automatic status under the Subtitles column, click the Options icon (with three vertical dots) that appears, and click Edit on Classic Studio.
- Download Transcription File
Click and open the Actions drop-down list from the top-left corner of the left pane, click your preferred transcription format including .vtt, .srt and .sbv from the list, and save the file on your local hard disk.
Method 2: Get YouTube Transcription when Watching
In addition, if you are watching any other video, you can make YouTube transcribe that for you as well. You can follow the instructions given below to get the YouTube video to text transcription:
Step 1: Play the Video
Go to the video on YouTube and start playing it. Make sure NOT to get to full-screen mode as doing so would hide the option to transcribe the clip.
Step 2: Enable Transcription
Click the More icon (with three horizontal dots) from under the bottom-right corner of the video player, and click Open transcript to see the video transcription in the Transcript pane that appears in the right.
Step 3: Manage Timestamps
Click the Options icon (with three vertical dots) from the top-right corner of the Transcript pane, and click Toggle timestamp to enable or disable the timestamps in the video transcription.
Limitations of Using YouTube Transcribe
Although YouTube’s automatic transcription is a decent feature that saves you a lot of time, since Google uses machine learning algorithms to convert the speech to text, the level of accuracy may vary depending on the accent of the speaker, and the clarity of the audio the video has. Also, even sometime you may not be satisfied with the end-results.
Alternatively, you can use Kapwing to transcribe a YouTube video and download the transcription file with the below step-by-step instructions:
Step 1: Add YouTube Video
Copy the URL of YouTube video you want to transcribe, go to https://www.kapwing.com/subtitles , paste the URL in the Paste a URL field, wait while Kapwing fetches the content of the video, and opens the Add subtitles to Video page.
Step 2: Transcribe the Video
Click Auto-generate from the right window, and follow the on-screen instructions to transcribe YouTube video to text.
Step 3: Download the Transcription File
Click Download SRT from the left pane, and follow the instructions from there to download the transcription file in *.srt format.
Pros
- Kapwing is free to use
- The auto-transcription process is quick and less tedious
- Kapwing also allows manual transcription and uploading of an existing *.srt file
Cons
- The auto-transcribed text might lack accuracy as the task is done by the speech-to-text tools that work in the background
You can follow the step-by-step instructions to transcribe a YouTube video and download the transcription file using Kapwing:
Step 1: Add YouTube Video
Copy the URL of YouTube video you want to transcribe, go to https://www.kapwing.com/subtitles , paste the URL in the Paste a URL field, wait while Kapwing fetches the content of the video, and opens the Add subtitles to Video page.
Step 2: Transcribe the Video
Click Auto-generate from the right window, and follow the on-screen instructions to transcribe YouTube video to text.
Step 3: Download the Transcription File
Click Download SRT from the left pane, and follow the instructions from there to download the transcription file in *.srt format.
Pros
- Kapwing is free to use
- The auto-transcription process is quick and less tedious
- Kapwing also allows manual transcription and uploading of an existing *.srt file
Cons
- The auto-transcribed text might lack accuracy as the task is done by the speech-to-text tools that work in the background
Part 3: Benefits of Transcribing YouTube Videos
You may need video transcriptions for several reasons, such as analyzing the summary of the entire speech in the video, extracting a single phrase or quote that was spoken in the clip, or making the video helpful even for those suffering from hearing impairment. When you transcribe a YouTube video, the transcript can be useful in many ways. Some of the most common benefits of transcribing a video include:
- Search Engine Optimization
When you add subtitles, the text can appear in Google search results when someone types a similar phrase in the search box. This helps get more views to your videos, thus giving your channel popularity, and you, monetary gains in the long run.
- Accent
If the speaker in the video is from a different region and is using an accent that you are not much comfortable with, you can turn on the subtitles and read the dialogs along with the video.
- Repurposing on Blogs
If you own a blog that you have embedded your video to, the transcription could be used to add text to it so the target audience can get a fair idea of what the video is all about. This is useful because many people prefer reading over watching.
YouTube Video Transcription FAQs
1. How to Transcribe YouTube Video to Text
Usually the transcription files have *.srt extension that are globally accepted and supported by almost all media players. However, there might be instances when you want to have the subtitles in plain text.
That said, to convert an SRT file to TXT, you can:
- Right-click the SRT file
- Go to Rename
- Replace srt with txt and press Enter
- Click OK on the confirmation box that appears next to convert SRT to TXT
After this, you can simply double-click the file, and read and modify the transcribed content as needed.
2. How to Edit and Upload Edited Transcript to YouTube
If you made any modifications to the transcript that was automatically generated by YouTube or any other third-party transcription tool, you can follow the steps given below to upload the new file to the YouTube video:
- Go to YouTube Studio and then to the Channel subtitles page as explained earlier
- Expand the Languages column of the target video
- Click the Options icon that appears under the Subtitles column when you hover mouse on to it
- Click Edit on Classic Studio
- On the next page, click Edit from the top-right corner
- Click to open the Actions drop-down list from the upper-left corner
- Click Upload a file
- Follow the on-screen instructions from there to upload the modified transcription file
- Click Save Changes from the top-right corner of the page when done
Conclusion
If you are looking for a quick and easy way of adding subtitles to your videos, letting YouTube transcribe for you could be a good approach. However, because these auto-generated transcriptions are created by machine learning algorithms, their accuracy cannot be counted on. Therefore, the best way to get the job done accurately is, let YouTube auto-transcribe your video, download the transcription file, make the necessary changes to it, and then upload the file back to the video.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Proven YouTube Intra Creation Strategies, Free Edition
Best Free YouTube Intro Makers
Richard Bennett
Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions
An intro video goes a long way towards building your brand and showing viewers that you’re serious about YouTube. Here’s where you can make or download intros, plus some tips on making intros that support the growth of your channel.
Free Intro Makers
Here’s a list of 4 places you can create or download FREE YouTube intros with no watermark.
Blender
Blender is a free, open-source, ‘3D creation suite’. It’s great for modeling and animation, and you can even use it to make your YouTube intros.
This is an extremely powerful program. You can create cartoons and video game prototypes in Blender. This does mean that it’s probably not realistic for someone with no experience in animation to jump in and make a quick intro for their YouTube channel. However, if you want to learn Blender, all of the information you need is easily accessible through the tutorials on their site.
What’s a bit more realistic than learning an entire animation suite to make an intro is to download a premade template and just customize it in Blender. You can find YouTube intro templates that are editable in Blender on YouTube and Velosofy.
Movietools
This is a great site where you can download all kinds of free resources including video loops and animated backgrounds you can use to build YouTube intros.
You cannot download a complete Intro with your own text and/or logo from Movietools the way you can with Panzoid, but they can provide most of the resources you would need to build a sequence in Filmora or another editor.
Downloads from Movietools come as WMV (Windows Media) or MP4 files.
Panzoid
For a lot of creators, Panzoid is the default site they go to for YouTube intros, and that’s with good reason. Panzoid has an endless supply of intro templates (new ones are created weekly by members of their community) which you can edit right on the site.
A lot of the intro templates on Panzoid include music, and almost all of them include 3D text.
Click on a template you like and then click ‘open in clipmaker’.
In the clipmaker, you’ll be able to edit the template however you like. The main change you’ll want to make will probably be to the text – you’ll want it to say your channel name. In the menu on the left side of the screen, you’ll see an icon that looks like a cube. Click on it to bring up a list of the objects in the sequence.
The text will probably be under a heading such as ‘Group: All’, although there may be some variation on this depending on who built the template. Look for something that says ‘Group: Text’ in one of the dropdown menus and then look at where it says ‘Text: (the text from the template)’. There will probably be at least two fields like this for one word/line (they’re layers of the same thing). Make sure to edit them all to say the same thing or your intro will look odd.
Click the icon that looks like an arrow pointing down to choose your quality (next to mode) and format before you export. The highest quality will make your clip slow to download, but that could be worth it since you’ll probably get a lot of use out of this clip and you only need to download it once.
Velosofy
Velosofy has a ton of great intro templates you can download for free. The only complication is that the downloads are project files for programs like Sony Vegas or After Effects, making it difficult to use them unless you have those programs.
Luckily, one of the programs Velosofy has intro downloads for is Blender, the free animation software discussed above. You can download YouTube intro templates from Velosofy to edit in Blender and end up with a great custom intro for free.
5 Tips for Making a Great Intro
Here are some tips for making an intro that supports the growth of your YouTube channel.
1. Keep it Under 10 Seconds
Someone who doesn’t know you, who is shopping around for the best video to watch on a particular topic, will not have the patience to sit through a long intro. In order to stop them from clicking away, you’ll need to keep your intro short. Ten seconds is the longest you can get away with, and that’s only if your intro is exciting and includes a lot of movement and music.
Five seconds will be better than 10 seconds in most cases.
2. Match Your Channel’s Branding
Your intro should help to strengthen your personal brand by using the same kinds of colors and fonts found in your channel art and thumbnails.
Beyond matching your visuals, your intro should support the general tone of your channel. If you tend to be upbeat in your videos, upbeat music and brighter colors are probably best. If you’re a tech channel, something sleek with a black background could be better.
3. Use Music
Viewers are likely to get distracted and click away during silent pauses. In order to keep their attention through your intro, you’ll need to include music, and maybe even a sound effect.
4. Include Your Channel Name
This might seem basic, but there are intros out there where the creator has overlooked this. One of the main purposes of your intro is to brand your video, so there’s nothing more important than including your channel name.
5. Introduce Your Topic Before Your Intro
Instead of putting your intro at the very beginning of your video, put a short clip ahead of it where you explain your topic. A viewer that is looking for you to get to the point quickly might click away if the first thing they see is the intro instead of information relevant to their search.
What’s your YouTube intro like? Can you think of a way you’d like to change or improve it?
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions
An intro video goes a long way towards building your brand and showing viewers that you’re serious about YouTube. Here’s where you can make or download intros, plus some tips on making intros that support the growth of your channel.
Free Intro Makers
Here’s a list of 4 places you can create or download FREE YouTube intros with no watermark.
Blender
Blender is a free, open-source, ‘3D creation suite’. It’s great for modeling and animation, and you can even use it to make your YouTube intros.
This is an extremely powerful program. You can create cartoons and video game prototypes in Blender. This does mean that it’s probably not realistic for someone with no experience in animation to jump in and make a quick intro for their YouTube channel. However, if you want to learn Blender, all of the information you need is easily accessible through the tutorials on their site.
What’s a bit more realistic than learning an entire animation suite to make an intro is to download a premade template and just customize it in Blender. You can find YouTube intro templates that are editable in Blender on YouTube and Velosofy.
Movietools
This is a great site where you can download all kinds of free resources including video loops and animated backgrounds you can use to build YouTube intros.
You cannot download a complete Intro with your own text and/or logo from Movietools the way you can with Panzoid, but they can provide most of the resources you would need to build a sequence in Filmora or another editor.
Downloads from Movietools come as WMV (Windows Media) or MP4 files.
Panzoid
For a lot of creators, Panzoid is the default site they go to for YouTube intros, and that’s with good reason. Panzoid has an endless supply of intro templates (new ones are created weekly by members of their community) which you can edit right on the site.
A lot of the intro templates on Panzoid include music, and almost all of them include 3D text.
Click on a template you like and then click ‘open in clipmaker’.
In the clipmaker, you’ll be able to edit the template however you like. The main change you’ll want to make will probably be to the text – you’ll want it to say your channel name. In the menu on the left side of the screen, you’ll see an icon that looks like a cube. Click on it to bring up a list of the objects in the sequence.
The text will probably be under a heading such as ‘Group: All’, although there may be some variation on this depending on who built the template. Look for something that says ‘Group: Text’ in one of the dropdown menus and then look at where it says ‘Text: (the text from the template)’. There will probably be at least two fields like this for one word/line (they’re layers of the same thing). Make sure to edit them all to say the same thing or your intro will look odd.
Click the icon that looks like an arrow pointing down to choose your quality (next to mode) and format before you export. The highest quality will make your clip slow to download, but that could be worth it since you’ll probably get a lot of use out of this clip and you only need to download it once.
Velosofy
Velosofy has a ton of great intro templates you can download for free. The only complication is that the downloads are project files for programs like Sony Vegas or After Effects, making it difficult to use them unless you have those programs.
Luckily, one of the programs Velosofy has intro downloads for is Blender, the free animation software discussed above. You can download YouTube intro templates from Velosofy to edit in Blender and end up with a great custom intro for free.
5 Tips for Making a Great Intro
Here are some tips for making an intro that supports the growth of your YouTube channel.
1. Keep it Under 10 Seconds
Someone who doesn’t know you, who is shopping around for the best video to watch on a particular topic, will not have the patience to sit through a long intro. In order to stop them from clicking away, you’ll need to keep your intro short. Ten seconds is the longest you can get away with, and that’s only if your intro is exciting and includes a lot of movement and music.
Five seconds will be better than 10 seconds in most cases.
2. Match Your Channel’s Branding
Your intro should help to strengthen your personal brand by using the same kinds of colors and fonts found in your channel art and thumbnails.
Beyond matching your visuals, your intro should support the general tone of your channel. If you tend to be upbeat in your videos, upbeat music and brighter colors are probably best. If you’re a tech channel, something sleek with a black background could be better.
3. Use Music
Viewers are likely to get distracted and click away during silent pauses. In order to keep their attention through your intro, you’ll need to include music, and maybe even a sound effect.
4. Include Your Channel Name
This might seem basic, but there are intros out there where the creator has overlooked this. One of the main purposes of your intro is to brand your video, so there’s nothing more important than including your channel name.
5. Introduce Your Topic Before Your Intro
Instead of putting your intro at the very beginning of your video, put a short clip ahead of it where you explain your topic. A viewer that is looking for you to get to the point quickly might click away if the first thing they see is the intro instead of information relevant to their search.
What’s your YouTube intro like? Can you think of a way you’d like to change or improve it?
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions
An intro video goes a long way towards building your brand and showing viewers that you’re serious about YouTube. Here’s where you can make or download intros, plus some tips on making intros that support the growth of your channel.
Free Intro Makers
Here’s a list of 4 places you can create or download FREE YouTube intros with no watermark.
Blender
Blender is a free, open-source, ‘3D creation suite’. It’s great for modeling and animation, and you can even use it to make your YouTube intros.
This is an extremely powerful program. You can create cartoons and video game prototypes in Blender. This does mean that it’s probably not realistic for someone with no experience in animation to jump in and make a quick intro for their YouTube channel. However, if you want to learn Blender, all of the information you need is easily accessible through the tutorials on their site.
What’s a bit more realistic than learning an entire animation suite to make an intro is to download a premade template and just customize it in Blender. You can find YouTube intro templates that are editable in Blender on YouTube and Velosofy.
Movietools
This is a great site where you can download all kinds of free resources including video loops and animated backgrounds you can use to build YouTube intros.
You cannot download a complete Intro with your own text and/or logo from Movietools the way you can with Panzoid, but they can provide most of the resources you would need to build a sequence in Filmora or another editor.
Downloads from Movietools come as WMV (Windows Media) or MP4 files.
Panzoid
For a lot of creators, Panzoid is the default site they go to for YouTube intros, and that’s with good reason. Panzoid has an endless supply of intro templates (new ones are created weekly by members of their community) which you can edit right on the site.
A lot of the intro templates on Panzoid include music, and almost all of them include 3D text.
Click on a template you like and then click ‘open in clipmaker’.
In the clipmaker, you’ll be able to edit the template however you like. The main change you’ll want to make will probably be to the text – you’ll want it to say your channel name. In the menu on the left side of the screen, you’ll see an icon that looks like a cube. Click on it to bring up a list of the objects in the sequence.
The text will probably be under a heading such as ‘Group: All’, although there may be some variation on this depending on who built the template. Look for something that says ‘Group: Text’ in one of the dropdown menus and then look at where it says ‘Text: (the text from the template)’. There will probably be at least two fields like this for one word/line (they’re layers of the same thing). Make sure to edit them all to say the same thing or your intro will look odd.
Click the icon that looks like an arrow pointing down to choose your quality (next to mode) and format before you export. The highest quality will make your clip slow to download, but that could be worth it since you’ll probably get a lot of use out of this clip and you only need to download it once.
Velosofy
Velosofy has a ton of great intro templates you can download for free. The only complication is that the downloads are project files for programs like Sony Vegas or After Effects, making it difficult to use them unless you have those programs.
Luckily, one of the programs Velosofy has intro downloads for is Blender, the free animation software discussed above. You can download YouTube intro templates from Velosofy to edit in Blender and end up with a great custom intro for free.
5 Tips for Making a Great Intro
Here are some tips for making an intro that supports the growth of your YouTube channel.
1. Keep it Under 10 Seconds
Someone who doesn’t know you, who is shopping around for the best video to watch on a particular topic, will not have the patience to sit through a long intro. In order to stop them from clicking away, you’ll need to keep your intro short. Ten seconds is the longest you can get away with, and that’s only if your intro is exciting and includes a lot of movement and music.
Five seconds will be better than 10 seconds in most cases.
2. Match Your Channel’s Branding
Your intro should help to strengthen your personal brand by using the same kinds of colors and fonts found in your channel art and thumbnails.
Beyond matching your visuals, your intro should support the general tone of your channel. If you tend to be upbeat in your videos, upbeat music and brighter colors are probably best. If you’re a tech channel, something sleek with a black background could be better.
3. Use Music
Viewers are likely to get distracted and click away during silent pauses. In order to keep their attention through your intro, you’ll need to include music, and maybe even a sound effect.
4. Include Your Channel Name
This might seem basic, but there are intros out there where the creator has overlooked this. One of the main purposes of your intro is to brand your video, so there’s nothing more important than including your channel name.
5. Introduce Your Topic Before Your Intro
Instead of putting your intro at the very beginning of your video, put a short clip ahead of it where you explain your topic. A viewer that is looking for you to get to the point quickly might click away if the first thing they see is the intro instead of information relevant to their search.
What’s your YouTube intro like? Can you think of a way you’d like to change or improve it?
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions
An intro video goes a long way towards building your brand and showing viewers that you’re serious about YouTube. Here’s where you can make or download intros, plus some tips on making intros that support the growth of your channel.
Free Intro Makers
Here’s a list of 4 places you can create or download FREE YouTube intros with no watermark.
Blender
Blender is a free, open-source, ‘3D creation suite’. It’s great for modeling and animation, and you can even use it to make your YouTube intros.
This is an extremely powerful program. You can create cartoons and video game prototypes in Blender. This does mean that it’s probably not realistic for someone with no experience in animation to jump in and make a quick intro for their YouTube channel. However, if you want to learn Blender, all of the information you need is easily accessible through the tutorials on their site.
What’s a bit more realistic than learning an entire animation suite to make an intro is to download a premade template and just customize it in Blender. You can find YouTube intro templates that are editable in Blender on YouTube and Velosofy.
Movietools
This is a great site where you can download all kinds of free resources including video loops and animated backgrounds you can use to build YouTube intros.
You cannot download a complete Intro with your own text and/or logo from Movietools the way you can with Panzoid, but they can provide most of the resources you would need to build a sequence in Filmora or another editor.
Downloads from Movietools come as WMV (Windows Media) or MP4 files.
Panzoid
For a lot of creators, Panzoid is the default site they go to for YouTube intros, and that’s with good reason. Panzoid has an endless supply of intro templates (new ones are created weekly by members of their community) which you can edit right on the site.
A lot of the intro templates on Panzoid include music, and almost all of them include 3D text.
Click on a template you like and then click ‘open in clipmaker’.
In the clipmaker, you’ll be able to edit the template however you like. The main change you’ll want to make will probably be to the text – you’ll want it to say your channel name. In the menu on the left side of the screen, you’ll see an icon that looks like a cube. Click on it to bring up a list of the objects in the sequence.
The text will probably be under a heading such as ‘Group: All’, although there may be some variation on this depending on who built the template. Look for something that says ‘Group: Text’ in one of the dropdown menus and then look at where it says ‘Text: (the text from the template)’. There will probably be at least two fields like this for one word/line (they’re layers of the same thing). Make sure to edit them all to say the same thing or your intro will look odd.
Click the icon that looks like an arrow pointing down to choose your quality (next to mode) and format before you export. The highest quality will make your clip slow to download, but that could be worth it since you’ll probably get a lot of use out of this clip and you only need to download it once.
Velosofy
Velosofy has a ton of great intro templates you can download for free. The only complication is that the downloads are project files for programs like Sony Vegas or After Effects, making it difficult to use them unless you have those programs.
Luckily, one of the programs Velosofy has intro downloads for is Blender, the free animation software discussed above. You can download YouTube intro templates from Velosofy to edit in Blender and end up with a great custom intro for free.
5 Tips for Making a Great Intro
Here are some tips for making an intro that supports the growth of your YouTube channel.
1. Keep it Under 10 Seconds
Someone who doesn’t know you, who is shopping around for the best video to watch on a particular topic, will not have the patience to sit through a long intro. In order to stop them from clicking away, you’ll need to keep your intro short. Ten seconds is the longest you can get away with, and that’s only if your intro is exciting and includes a lot of movement and music.
Five seconds will be better than 10 seconds in most cases.
2. Match Your Channel’s Branding
Your intro should help to strengthen your personal brand by using the same kinds of colors and fonts found in your channel art and thumbnails.
Beyond matching your visuals, your intro should support the general tone of your channel. If you tend to be upbeat in your videos, upbeat music and brighter colors are probably best. If you’re a tech channel, something sleek with a black background could be better.
3. Use Music
Viewers are likely to get distracted and click away during silent pauses. In order to keep their attention through your intro, you’ll need to include music, and maybe even a sound effect.
4. Include Your Channel Name
This might seem basic, but there are intros out there where the creator has overlooked this. One of the main purposes of your intro is to brand your video, so there’s nothing more important than including your channel name.
5. Introduce Your Topic Before Your Intro
Instead of putting your intro at the very beginning of your video, put a short clip ahead of it where you explain your topic. A viewer that is looking for you to get to the point quickly might click away if the first thing they see is the intro instead of information relevant to their search.
What’s your YouTube intro like? Can you think of a way you’d like to change or improve it?
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
- Title: "2024 Approved Navigating the Digital Landscape FREE Tools for YouTube Audio to Text"
- Author: Joseph
- Created at : 2024-05-31 13:49:08
- Updated at : 2024-06-01 13:49:08
- Link: https://youtube-stream.techidaily.com/2024-approved-navigating-the-digital-landscape-free-tools-for-youtube-audio-to-text/
- License: This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
