In a time of high demand for video production, webinars, and online meetings, there is always a need to turn the speech into text, for different reasons. Sometimes you need it to put subtitles to the video, and sometimes you have to provide written proof of what happened during the online meeting. Also, journalists often record their interviews, and it takes a lot of hours of work for them to listen to the interview, and turn it into a text that will be published in a newspaper or magazine.
Today’s tools and software are not only transcribing the audio or video file – they are giving you an option to translate it to another language too. These tools have wide use in today’s business market, or even the online education process, because of the coronavirus situation. The students can listen to the teacher, and write down everything important, but also they can use the software to transcribe what they say. By doing that, they are saving a lot of time and can be focused on the interactions with teachers and the other students during the classes. Many students struggle to write down the important things while the teacher is talking, so they can study later. But, not anymore. In this article, we will try to track down the best tools available online, even mention a few that are free for use, so you can find what you really need.
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Gglot
Save a lot of time and money, by using this tool to transcribe your audio and video files, for a great price. You only have to pay the cost per minute transcribed. Sign up for an account at gglot, and follow the instructions. It’s very simple, and it saves a lot of time because the whole process is pretty quick. It’s a multilingual service, that is excellent for interviews, marketing purposes, written content, subtitles, and explanations of some video, or academic research. It’s using an advanced AI transcription technology and can convert every video or audio file into text for you. In the end, it’s always a good idea to read the text by yourself, in order some tiny mistake was made. It also can recognize the idioms from English, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, French, Chinese, German, Russian, and many other languages. Don’t forget to edit the final document, so you can be sure there are no errors before you use the file.
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Scribie
This one offers both automated and manual services, it works great, charges for a minute, and it’s pretty accurate. It will take less than two days until you have your documents back, most of the time checked for any grammar issue. But, it has additional fees if you want the file edited, for background noises, so the software can be more precise. It’s simple to use since you only have to upload the file, pay the required fee, and wait for the system to send the completed document for you. But, it only works with American English speech, and maybe it won’t be accurate with the others. For those looking to streamline the process further, online audio transcription tools now offer features such as subtitle translation, enabling users to effortlessly expand the reach and accessibility of their content.
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iScribed
This is one of the highest accurate transcribers, with a fast turnaround, followed by attractive and competitive prices. The accuracy is estimated at around 99%, and the fixed price is $0.89 per minute, but you can be charged for your extra requirement, for example, if you need your completed document faster than their usual turnaround time of 48 hours.
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OTranscribe
This is a free tool that you can install as a browser extension, and see how it automatically turns the speech into text. The interface is pretty simple and intuitive, but you have to double-check the document since it doesn’t offer the same options as the paid tools. On the other hand, it works faster than them, and you can see the process in real-time. You only have to upload the file, or paste the link of the audio or video, and see how it’s going. The main disadvantage is that it automatically saves the file in RTF format, and if you want to convert it, you have to do it manually, after the transcription is done.
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The FTW transcriber
This is a popular free tool, that can be downloaded on your computer. It supports almost every audio or video format, and generates a timestamp automatically, so you can navigate easily through the document. It appears like an orange box, and you can play the file, and at the same time edit the document, or skip to the important parts. It’s useful for the short (or even longer) interviews for the newspapers, and magazines, that will be printed later.
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Temi
This is a premium tool that is used by a lot of commercial media houses, because it has advanced recognition software, that detects the speech, and transcribes it immediately. That’s a pretty excellent turnaround time, for those who need the text immediately. It’s less accurate than those who need a day or two to provide the transcription, but the users are always there to fix those mistakes. As you can see, if the tool is precise, it needs more time to convert the audio or video file to text, but if you need the text immediately, there are some chances that it won’t be completely accurate, but it won’t take a lot of time for you to check it before it’s published or printed.
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Transcription Panda
This is one of the best choices for those who don’t need the file immediately. The first draft will be available in 24 hours or more, but it comes with a competitive price, and it’s great if things aren’t urgent. It’s pretty accurate. Every transcription service is worth looking at, but you have to know your needs and find the one that fits them the best.
As you can see, you have a lot of choices, and we tried to include different services in this list, so you can easily detect what do you need, and choose the right software for your work.
