Author: Allan Caeg

Industries That Need Accurate Transcription Services

Allan CaegLeave a comment

In competitive industries, mistakes can be costly. This is true for video and audio transcription. And if you come from certain high-stakes environments, the emphasis on quality and accuracy is exponentially higher.

There have been many breakthroughs in accessibility, discoverability, AI, and speech recognition software. Having said that, despite the advancements, it’s unlikely that automation will reach Human Parity (a technical term describing how close AI is to humans in terms of performance) anytime soon.

For Scribie’s manual transcription services, we’ve developed a process for highly-accurate transcriptions and preciseness using a “Super-Human Parity” system.

Discover more about Scribie’s efficient and effective process, who automated transcription is for, and how errors in transcription can affect your industry. Learn the importance of precision, and get inspired by these examples for your transcription use cases, and beyond.

When Automated Transcription Doesn’t Cut It

Automated transcription is an option. However, not every business can take care of editing and quality assurance on their own.

Free, automated transcriptions from other providers typically produce an accuracy rate of 60-80%, resulting in 1 out of 3 incorrect words. Unlike manual transcripts, the machines can’t make corrections based on context, punctuate correctly, add paragraph breaks, or identify individual speakers. This is why you may need human discernment for accurate, error-free transcription.

Scribie developed a Four-Step Process, a strict and thorough manual transcription and QA process. This meritocratic QA system, aka super-human parity system, ensures that nothing gets through the cracks, with each subsequent step accomplished by a more skilled transcriber. As a Scribie customer, you’re guaranteed 99% accuracy or higher, speedy delivery, and more privacy.

Scribie is the only video and audio transcription service provider using the Four-Step Process. Get guaranteed accurate transcripts today!

High-stakes & competitive industries that rely on accurate transcripts

Learn about these scenarios that require the most reliable transcription services. Get inspired by how these examples demonstrate the value of professionalism.

1. Podcasters, YouTubers, and Marketers

It’s a good time for podcasters. Both Google I/O 2019 and Apple recently announced enhancements in podcast search features. Your podcast transcripts play a bigger role in Google Search.

When you come up with your own transcripts (and they’re of superior quality), you enjoy SEO benefits and rank higher on search engine results pages.

Source: NiemanLab

In addition to podcast transcription helping your discoverability and SEO, your audio transcript improves listeners’ experience and shareability. Your audience can easily find sections of your podcast and share snippets of their favorite segments. Podcast transcripts also let you add backlinks and repurpose your content into blog posts.

The same principles are true for YouTube and other forms of marketing.

In other words, if you need marketing visibility, you’ll need superior transcripts to get ahead.

2. Academics

The academic community is a high-stakes industry that requires the utmost accuracy in transcription services. As you carefully execute the scientific method to avoid compromising results, you don’t want a simple typo to ruin your entire study.

Academics use voice recordings to preserve notes, observations, and interviews for scientific papers.

The smallest typo during transcription can be disastrous. Researchers can accidentally publish the wrong findings and propagate misinformation. It can result in grave errors in future published studies, misguided applications in healthcare, engineering mishaps, and more.

Source: Gizmodo

Not to mention, typos can be expensive. NASA, for example, recently experienced the high cost of inaccurate transcription which led to a catastrophic rocket explosion.

Six Degrees shares,

“Some reports attributed the rocket failure to a misplaced decimal point, an extra semicolon or a comma that was entered in place of a period in the coded mathematical instructions that guided the steering systems on board the spacecraft.”

3. Healthcare

Precise and accurate medical transcription services is a leading priority in Healthcare.

Mistakes made during medical transcription can cost medical practices, time, energy, and money. The patient’s medical care and health is put on the line.

Crucial errors include incorrect diagnoses, demographics, terminology, dosage, lab results, operation dates, and omissions.

4. Enterprises/Businesses/Brands

Transcription errors cost businesses millions of dollars each year and compromise relationships with your clients, customers, or partners.

Pricing errors are among the most frequent mistakes in business transcription services. The wrong or missing digit and misplaced decimal point can be an expensive mistake that can be perceived as fraudulent on your part.

Your business could be at legal liability for administering or publishing inaccurate and false information.

Spelling mistakes can influence search engine optimization. One famous example cited by Six Degrees is an eBay auction listing one of the rarest bottles of beer in the world. The typo in the listing cost the brewing company $500,000. The rare beverage ended up selling for only $304 because the seller mistyped the name “Allsopp”.

When it comes to branding and marketing, transcription errors can negatively impact consumer perceptions, as Six Degrees also cites:

“ [Errors] create a lasting impression of carelessness. They can sabotage a first impression, reduce credibility, compromise brand positioning and diminish reputations. They undermine the clarity of branded messaging, create confusion, suggest poor communication skills and convey a lack of attention to detail.”

5. Legal and Government

When drafting legal language, such as contracts or depositions, it is essential to be precise in communication, spelling, grammar, and punctuation. There should be no ambiguity and room for interpretation.

Source: CNN

For instance, a professor found that the Declaration of Independence was actually inscribed with a comma. This punctuation “typo” has resulted in hundreds of years of confusion over the role of government in individual rights.

6. Mass Communication

If you’re a media professional, working in video production, filmmaking, or journalism your work can be misinterpreted by your audience. Communication is powerful and the wrong message can rile up entire communities. Imagine, the captions and translations of your work will be based on your transcripts.

You want to showcase your production with captioning and transcription that accurately reflect your intent.

Over to You

Critical transcripts should be handled by professional transcription specialists, reliable for accuracy and quality. Receive error-free transcripts in different file formats, with a 99% or higher accuracy rate.

Scribie’s video and audio transcription services include a stringent QA system by experts, which involves processing your transcript in four separate stages. Scribie’s trademark Four-Step Process ensures quality, accuracy, and privacy for any business, enterprise, or industry professional.

Get transcription services that fit your standard of excellence. Order transcripts from Scribie today!

Rev vs. Scribie: Which Transcription Service is Right for You?

Allan CaegLeave a comment

Choosing your transcription service provider can be challenging.

Undoubtedly, you have a few key considerations in mind. In this breakdown, we list and compare major pricing and features between Scribie and Rev, to help you select the best choice.

Many transcription providers aren’t upfront with all of their rates and unclear on inclusive features. Some have hidden charges, You’ll often have to hunt for all of the additional costs scattered around their webpages, making it difficult to compute your total transcription cost. On Scribie, however, you’ll be able to see the pricing, complete list of inclusive features (plus, all of the add-ons) in a single table on the pricing page. Our rates are simple and transparent.

Pricing is a considerable factor in selecting a transcription service. You’ll probably notice that Scribie’s costs are very competitive. Scribie has also fine-tuned the most thorough and efficient QA process. (Learn more about Scribie’s four-step process.)

See how else Scribie compares to Rev in key areas for your transcription needs.

Accuracy and Turnaround

Scribie is the only transcription service that uses a thorough Four-Step Process to transcribe your files. This unique formula ensures that accuracy is 99% or more. Your transcript’s quality will be vetted multiple times by different Scribie specialists.

When different transcribers work on a single file, your transcript quality is assured. Additionally, the turn-around time tends to be fast.

Scribie’s turn-around time is expected to be under 36 hours (depending on file length). Customers typically get their order within 12 hours. Short files are often delivered within the hour.

Scribie: Four-Step QA Process (1 hr – 36 hrs turnaround)

Rev: Single-step transcription process (<24 hrs turnaround)

Pricing

Transcription services usually charge a flat fee per audio minute. See the pricing structure of Rev vs. Scribie below:

Scribie: $0.80/min.

Rev: $1.00/min.

Considering Rev vs. Scribie’s price per minute, Scribie rates are lower at only $0.80/min. The lower pricing makes a big difference in transcription charges as rates add up. Rev’s transcription rates are not as upfront, making it challenging to compute total costs. You’ll have to do a bit of research to find the hidden additional costs.

Scribie provides predictable, simple and transparent pricing. All of the rates for services can easily be found and understood on Scribie’s pricing page, with no hidden charges.

Considering Scribie and Rev pricing, you might wonder, “Which service provides more?”.

Scribie offers all the same features as Rev. However, with Rev you’ll have to pay extra for some features that Scribie offers for free.

Time Coding

Time Coding is one such free feature offered by Scribie (which you’ll have to pay extra for on Rev).

Timestamps are an essential feature aligning your transcript text to the recording. They’re inserted at specific intervals to sync your captions to the video or help with post-production editing.

Scribie: Free

Rev: + $0.25/min (for timestamps every 30 seconds)

With Rev, timestamps or time-coding are an add-on service. Rev charges an extra $0.25 per minute for timestamps every 30 seconds.

Scribie, on the other hand, offers time coding for free as part of the $0.80/min transcription rate.

Speaker Tracking

Another missing feature by Rev is Speaker Tracking. Speaker tracking helps identify multiple voices in your recording and detects changes or turns in speakers.

Scribie: Identifies speakers by name

Rev: Identifies speakers as “Speaker 1, 2, etc.”

Rev only transcribes multi-speaker files by indicating “speaker 1”, “speaker 2″,”male” or “female”.

Scribie, in comparison, identifies and marks each speaker with their initials if names are provided or available. Speaker Tracking by Scribie is free.

Privacy and Confidentiality

Both Scribie and Rev require transcriptionists to sign strict NDAs for confidentiality.

Unlike Rev, however, Scribie’s Four-Step Process breaks up your files into segments. No single person views or accesses the complete contents and context of your file. This ensures that you enjoy more privacy.

Integrations

Both Scribie and Rev provide numerous integrations for fast and easy transcription.

You can upload your audio or video files from your computer, enter a publicly accessible link, or import from Dropbox, Vimeo, Google Drive, and more.

Scribie: Add captions directly to your published YouTube video from Scribie’s platform.

Rev: Add the captions yourself on the YouTube platform.

Scribie lets you directly add captions to your published YouTube video–from Scribie–without ever leaving the site. This is a great, free feature designed for YouTube creators.

Billing

Whether you anticipate ordering a high-volume of transcripts or need a single transcript for a project, Scribie is a more flexible option.

Scribie: Pay-as-you-go, billing account, team billing

Rev: Pay-as-you-go

Rev has no subscription model for payments and charges for every order.

Scribie lets you pay-as-you-go and offers a subscription model for recurring customers. You can set up a billing account and add funds to your account, share them with your team members, and more.

What Scribie Customers Say

The transcripts are very accurate. I like the pricing options based on turnaround time and the ability to track progress prior to completion. They have always met their deadlines. – Charles Senteio, University of Michigan School of Information

Customer service is excellent. The support team has communicated very promptly whenever I have had questions. Your staff graciously compiled individual transcriptions into a single document for me. I have already recommended Scribie to other members of an e-learning community. Thank you very much for offering high quality transcription at a very reasonable price.
– Derek Frankhouser, Manhattan Prep

Over to You

With Scribie’s Four-Step Transcription Process, we are the most thorough, accurate, and discreet transcription service provider. Scribie offers the lowest transcription prices, giving you more for less, with all the essential features (and more) for your transcription service needs.

Whether you’re a one-time customer or a company needing a steady stream of high-quality transcription services, choose Scribie as a reliable transcription and closed captioning service provider.

In need of a transcript? Try Scribie: upload your audio/video file

Google I/O Announcements: What This Means for Podcasters, Video Producers, and Businesses

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Android Live Captions - Google I/O 2019

Wondering what Google I/O’s 2019 announcements could mean for your business?

We follow the variety of developments from major technology players like Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon. We monitor trends to stay on top of the latest and greatest, making sure that we’re in the position to deliver the best transcription service offering.

Recently, the latest installment of Google I/O concluded. This annual developer conference showcases developments around hardware, software, services, and other updates. On stage during the main keynote, Google mentioned the following notable features:

  • Live Captions, which can automatically create captions for audio and videos. The feature can be used offline.
  • Podcast episodes will now show up in Google searches.

When enabled, Android Q’s Live Captions feature adds real-time captions to any audio or video playing on your phone.

Source: The Verge

At Google’s I/O developer conference, the company also quickly mentioned that Google Search would begin indexing podcasts. If you’re a podcaster, your episodes appear as playable and actionable entries within relevant search results.

If you’re wondering what that looks like, check this out:

Source: NiemanLab

Implications of the Emerging Tech

While it’s evident that it’ll be easier for folks to find podcasts online, it’s unclear what this means for the podcasting community. Google shared little about this announcement.

Definitely, though, this is solid proof that captions and accessibility are becoming a cornerstone in modern society. For instance, more successful video streaming sites and social video posts now noticeably include captions.

Why do captions matter? Captions and transcripts are critical for reaching a wider audience (including hard-of-hearing, non-native English speakers, and those who prefer watching without sound). In fact, 85 percent of social videos are watched with the sound off.

When it comes to watch time, subtitled videos increase view time by more than 12% and are watched an average 91% to completion. In comparison, videos without subtitles are only watched 66% to completion. When subtitles are included, 80% more people watch videos to completion.

The Reality of Live Captions

If you’ve seen YouTube’s auto CC feature in action, you can guess the accuracy level of live captions.

The University of Minnesota Duluth shares,

“YouTube automatic captions typically provides about 60-70% accuracy, which means that 1 in 3 words can be wrong. This accuracy rate will be improved with good audio quality and simple content, but worsens when there is background noise, accents, or multi-syllable words.”

Should you use an automated transcription service such as Google’s Live Captions?

For producers, this means that your productions could display captions with embarrassing or crucial errors.

Source: Imgur

Transcription software doesn’t have language inference systems. Without this tech, the machine won’t be able to make corrections based on context, as well as identify different speakers, appropriate paragraph breaks, punctuation marks, capitalization, quotations, and more. Live Captions’ capabilities are also pared down to accommodate your phone’s memory. (Speaking of which, this feature will be available on select devices only).

Privacy and control are concerns as well. Whenever one uses free (gratis) services, there’s a question of how the operation is funded. For example, you can use TikTok as a free video sharing platform, but agreeing to their terms means giving them permission to use your videos for their online ads.

Another thing, your live captions and automated transcriptions cannot be downloaded and saved for later review. They also can’t be edited. The Verge mentions in a Live Captions report,

“They’re there when the content is playing and gone when it’s done.”

There also seem to be no plans to let Live Captions support transcriptions.

The Cost of Low-Quality Transcriptions

While there are reasonable use cases for free, automated transcripts, it’s not for everyone. You’ll easily end up paying far more for the cost of errors.

Brands would lean towards high-quality transcripts to remain compliant with brand guidelines. TV Show subtitles, for example, can benefit from a transcription by hand.

Some content, such as medical and scientific papers are high stakes and need to have a human review and type out the correct findings. Manual transcription is also crucial for court transcripts, depositions, and other legal documents.

Who are manual transcripts for?

If you’re still on the fence between human vs. machine closed caption and transcription services, this summary may help:

Manual transcription services are ideal for enterprises and established brands, as well as the following industries:

  • Research
  • Media
  • Education
  • Marketing
  • Legal

Despite the cost of manual vs. free automatic transcription, a skilled transcription specialist can save you money. Mistakes by automated transcription software can be costly. A missing punctuation mark once caused a NASA rocket’s engine failure and ended up costing $620 million. Yikes!

Setting Your Work Apart

Your audience can distinguish auto-generated transcriptions and give it generic, baseline treatment. Accurate and well-written captions or transcripts are a mark of quality productions, created mindfully with empathy towards audiences.

Live Captions, as mentioned earlier, also can’t be downloaded as a copy for repurposing or post-production editing.

As an editor, you might also miss the time-codes and timestamps feature provided by transcription services.

Although Live Captions does improve accessibility, it doesn’t help your SEO. Google knows if you didn’t invest in transcription, giving higher-quality productions higher SERP ranking treatment.

Human Parity

Speech and voice recognition software is advancing, but human transcribers are better at discerning the context of a webinar, podcast, or any type of video content.

There's a technical term used in AI called human parity. It measures how close AI is to humans in terms of performance. Automatic transcripts may be quick, but they eventually need intervention by hand for an error-free copy.

Scribie, a professional transcription and closed captioning service, has a unique defining feature that helps guarantee 99% accuracy: Scribie’s Four-Step Process. (Usually, other transcription services only offer a single or two-step process that leave room for errors.)

Sribie’s quality assurance system is meritocratic, meaning each subsequent step is accomplished by a more skilled transcriber. This is why Scribie’s system can be described as a super-human parity system.

Fun fact: Each second of the audio is played an average of 8 times before being delivered to the customer.

On top of those, as a Scribie customer, you’ll be able to edit your transcript in our online editor, save your transcribed file in various formats, and/or upload them directly to your content-sharing platform.

See the difference for yourself. Upload your audio/video file.

Making Game of Thrones: Why The Last Season Feels Different [No Spoilers]

Allan Caeg1 Comment
Making Game of Thrones: Why The Last Season Feels Different [No Spoilers]

If you’re like many GoT fans, you feel like there is something off about the last season.

Game of Thrones season 8 feels different in comparison to previous installments, and Daniel Silvermint took note of this in a trending thread on Twitter:

Whether you’re a writer, filmmaker, video producer, media professional, or GoT enthusiast, you’ll be interested in hearing why this is so, and his take on plotters vs. pantsers.

He goes on to explain the behind-the-scenes process in the making of Game of Thrones,

If you’re not familiar with the [plotters vs. pantsers] distinction, plotters create a fairly detailed outline before they commit a single word to the page.

Pantsers, on the other hand, according to Daniel,

discover the story as they write it, often treating the first draft like one big elaborate outline.” It seems that neither approach is the absolute correct one.

Both George R.R Martin and the Game of Thrones showrunners seem to be epic pantsers. They write like cultivating a garden, planting character seeds and carefully letting them grow and grow. That’s why we feel utterly connected to these characters.

Pantsers have an easier time writing realistic characters because they generate the plot by asking themselves what this fully-realized person would do or think next in the dramatic situation the writer has dropped them in.

As creators or video producers, you often have to fly by the seat of your pants (thus, the term “pantsers”) during shooting because of constraints.

Discover how the Game of Thrones showrunners are able to juggle a million details and pull off this huge production while filming across multiple simultaneous geographic shooting locations.

Plus, why and how you can use post-production transcripts as a producer’s secret weapon.

Video Production and Editing

Scripts are rarely final. During film production, changes and tweaks to the script are often made last-minute on the set or a short while before the shoot. So, the original script becomes obsolete.

Also, GoT scripts self-destruct like Mission Impossible. Post-production transcripts created after filming help showrunners keep track of what made it on film.

Post-production transcription is a word-for-word, shot-by-shot, minute-by-minute account of a film, video or documentary – and it’s 100% accurate. Transcription is usually outsourced to help production houses focus on video production.

As you can imagine, the post-production transcript deviates from the original script depending on how much the actors and rest of the crew improvise. This is necessary for an accurate record.

The Benefits of a Post-Production Transcript

  1. Translate your film to a different language with ease.
  2. Use timecodes and timestamps to save time.
  3. Skip ahead for revisions.
  4. Use video transcripts to add captions.

During post-production and video editing, a transcript (which usually contains timestamps) serves as a copy of their work. With hundreds of hours of raw footage, it helps simplify and make the post-production process more efficient.

Multi-Geographic Locations: On The Set While Filming

While the main Game Of Thrones headquarters is at Paint Hall studios in Belfast, Northern Ireland; the better part of filming Game of Thrones takes place in other locations including: Croatia, Canada, and other European countries.

As producers shoot simultaneously in different locations across the world, they need to constantly update each other on any changes made to the story and script. This is to ensure that there is continuity in the story and plot.

Transcripts and notes allow production members to update each other on progress and stay in sync.

The film crew member in charge of continuity is the script supervisor. As the plot progresses and evolves, unsourced material is challenged and removed, the script supervisor (aka continuity supervisor) oversees the continuity of the motion picture including wardrobe, props, set dressing, hair, makeup and the actions of the actors during a scene.

Transcripts give script supervisors an updated account of what went on in previous scenes to help inform the next scenes. They then send the transcripts to the film crew shooting in another location.

Interestingly, Game of Thrones has had a few continuity goofs besides that coffee cup, including a Jaime Lannister rubber sword, jeans and laptop cord cameo, as well as a moving scar.

Writing Game of Thrones

As a fan of the series, you know that the creators love planting Easter eggs, subtle clues, and callbacks to throwaway lines from previous seasons.

The writers have often had to make a choice about what to incorporate into the TV Series. With such rich source material from GRRM, plus the tweaks made in the show, how do the writers keep track?

A transcript allows showrunners to keep track of lines, (changing relationships and character development) that have made it into the series to incorporate into later episodes.

Daniel says:

That’s why every plot point and fair-in-hindsight surprise landed with such devastating weight: everything that happened to these characters happened because of their past choices. But it’s also the reason why the narrative momentum of the books slowed over time.

Over to You

Post-production transcription services help keep massive productions like Game of Thrones running. As a video producer or media professional, transcripts are essential for creative writing and video production — even marketing. (Transcripts can be re-purposed into marketing content and copy).

You can also use the text copy of your video as the source material for your translations and captions, which is a more a powerful consumption method. More people prefer watching with captions. Think of how many shows thrive on Netflix versus other platforms.

For more information on how you can use transcripts as a filmmaking hack, see the 4 Ways Modern Filmmakers Use Transcripts to Create Successful Productions.

Are you searching for a transcription partner? Order a transcript from Scribie today!

What It’s like to Earn a Living as a Scribie Transcriptionist

Allan CaegLeave a comment
What It’s like to Earn a Living as a Scribie Transcriptionist

Courtney wanted to spend more time with her family.

She was considering a range of income sources knowing that she had to stay home and care for her children as well.

Meanwhile, Tano, a gamer and photographer in her spare time, doesn’t mind a more lucrative source of income than the traditional teaching job. Debbie, on the other hand, is a sports fan who sought more flexibility in terms of work.

Lilian wanted to avoid traffic.

Jeffrey appreciates an income source as he travels throughout the world. What do they all have in common?

Currently, all of them are working at Scribie as online transcriptionists. They’re certified Scribie professionals.

Take a peek inside their lives, and what makes them successful in their line of work. If you’re searching for transcription job reviews, discover what it’s like working as a Scribie transcriptionist, and what you’ll need to get started.

Why did you choose remote work as an online transcriptionist at Scribie?

Nothing beats spending time with family and witnessing your children’s milestones.

Definitely, this seems to be the case for Courtney Baliat, who has been a Scribie certified audio transcriptionist for over 3 years. Courtney is a top transcriber, reviewer, proofreader, and quality control specialist from Auburn Hills, United States.

A hands-on, dedicated mother of three, she knew that the typical workplace, whether part-time or full-time, wouldn’t work for her and her family. So, she considered a source of income with a flexible schedule, and that’s how she ended up with Scribie.

I decided to try working for Scribie initially because of the flexible schedule. I have 3 kids who are very active and a typical part time or full time position was not going to work for my family. I have since realized that it is a great way to make a steady income without having to leave my house or have to miss out on things with my kids. I love it!

This is how many job seekers, looking for freelance transcription jobs online, come to Scribie. They’re usually looking for remote work with a flexible schedule.

Another Scribie Pro, Tano Ramoya, plays video games and does photography in her spare time. She has also been an excellent Scribie professional for over the past 3 years.

Tano, Certified Scribie Transcriptionist

Previously, she used to work as a Philosophy instructor from Baguio Philippines, with 15 years of experience teaching in the traditional classroom. Teacher Tano shares her reasons behind working at Scribie,

Scribie gives me the freedom to work my own hours, and my own workload for the day.

Being a teacher is an arduous, noble job that doesn’t always compensate as much as one would hope. For fellow teachers who might be searching for a sideline and additional income, Tano says,

It pays more than a traditional teaching job, if you are willing to put in a considerable amount of hours per week.

Tano reviews working at Scribie:

Overall, it’s easy, comfortable work, and opens your horizons to different fields and interests.

Debbie Banks is a sports fan from Abilene, United States. She enjoys watching different sports, from soccer, tennis, baseball, and football to basketball. She has been a loyal Scribie pro since 2013, offering quality transcription, proofreading and quality control for over 5 years.

The ability to work at anytime that I want is what encouraged me to work remotely.

Being able to avoid traffic and travel fares are also a huge benefit for those working remotely, like Lilian Muthee. Another huge perk is that you’re in control. Working for Scribie means that you can influence how little or how much you earn, without having to commit to a certain number of work hours.

Lilian gives her personal reasons for why she chose working at Scribie over a more traditional job:

I was encouraged to work remotely because I could choose my own hours, able to largely influence how much I was making, and also did not need to commute to work.

Jeffrey Whitaker, like the rest of the group, values flexibility as he discovers the world:

I enjoy working on my own timeline, when I want and for how long I want.

What’s your favorite thing about your workspace?

Of course, your own comfortable place to work is key, as our skilled transcriber Courtney says,

My favorite thing about my at home office is that it’s comfortable. I can take breaks whenever I want and work as little or as much as I want to each day.

As a Scribie professional, you can choose your work location, whether it’s at a cafe, beach resort, or even your own home. In the case of Philosophy teacher, transcription expert, photography lover, and gamer, where is Tano’s favorite place to work?

My favorite thing about my workspace is that it’s at home. I don’t have to travel anywhere to work, and I am in the comfort of my own space while earning.

Debbie shares her favorite part about working at Scribie:

The favorite thing about my workspace is that I am in the comforts of my home. I can work from anywhere in my home or even somewhere else as long as it is quiet enough.

Lilian says that,

The favorite thing about my work space is that it’s comfortable and inspiring which makes it easier for me to reach my daily goals.

What do you need to get started as a transcriptionist online?

Getting started with Scribie is easy, too. You’re given everything you need to begin. All you’ll really need as a professional transcriptionist is a laptop. Courtney stresses the importance of a comfortable place to work and lists her transcription equipment,

I don’t use any special equipment other than my laptop and a pair of noise cancelling headphones.

Jeffrey emphasizes the value of a good internet connection. He looks for the right spot whether he’s in India, Central America, Europe, or Southeast Asia.

Another thing aspiring professional transcribers might need is a hefty dose of dedication and self-motivation. Courtney shares this personal Scribie review, a heartwarming story, and more nuggets of wisdom,

The income that I have earned over the last few years working with Scribie has allowed my family to do a lot of fun things. It is a great source of income if you are dedicated and have the self motivation to push yourself.

For experienced freelance transcribers online, like Lilian, it’s important to find a place where you’ll feel inspired to work.

Debbie says that it’s essential that the workspace is quiet.

Take the first step towards becoming a freelance online transcriptionist. Apply now and join Scribie.

4 Ways Modern Filmmakers Use Transcripts to Create Successful Productions

Allan CaegLeave a comment
4 Ways Modern Filmmakers Use Transcripts to Create Successful Productions

For all filmmakers, videographers, and video enthusiasts, it’s the perfect time to reach more people with your artistic vision, discipline, and love for the craft.

The viewing habits of your audiences are changing, along with greater demands for accessibility and compelling storytelling. Videos are moving beyond theaters and TVs and are being consumed in all kinds of environments and on different devices. Captions are now becoming a requirement and indicator of good, quality production.

It’s unsurprising that video streaming sites like Netflix, Hulu, Ustream, and others are gaining popularity as one of the fastest growing industries. That includes the recently announced and highly-anticipated Disney Plus.

Many pop culture references even describe this generation’s competitive workforce as made up of any of these three words: Coffee, Netflix, (and also, tears).

As you make it easier for viewers to enjoy and consume your films, they may not realize that before a movie is created, it has to go under 3 basic process – pre-production, production, post-production. They only see the final product, which is the movie.

If we review your process, pre-production involves all the planning from the script, auditions, scouting of locations, and others. Production is when the actual shooting happens. While the most important and longest process is post-production.

Depending on the scale and budget, your film or movie production time can vary from days to years!

Regardless of how small or big a production company is, you can make the life of your post-production team, especially your videographers, easier with the use of post-production transcripts.

These essential transcripts speed up video editing and captioning. Find out how you can maximize the use of transcripts for video production and distribution, as well as useful resources for choosing the right transcription and captioning provider.

What is a post-production transcript?

Post-production transcription is a word-for-word, shot-by-shot, minute-by-minute account of a film, video or documentary – and it’s 100% accurate. Transcription is usually outsourced. Some big scale production companies delegate this task to in-house teams, but due to lack of experience, the quality of work is often affected.

One reason many video producers use transcripts is so that referencing lines or sections from the script becomes easier through written timecodes and timestamps.

Note: To save time and money, you may schedule transcription work after production. Why? Imagine you’re in the middle of production. Big, impromptu script changes were made, and a chunk of dialogue gets deleted. Your original script practically becomes irrelevant in post-production, and a post-production transcript, a lifesaver.

Why Videographers/Film Directors Use Video Transcripts

What are the benefits of a video transcript?

If you’ve seen the 2015 version of Mad Max: Fury Road, it’s surprising that this 120-minute film had up to 480 hours of raw footage! (You’ve probably had your share of drowning in raw footage.)

In this case, the video editor had to condense unedited material into a 120-minute feature film.

Source: VashiVisuals

Working on a film without a transcript to guide your video editing ups the difficulty level past ‘Normal’ and ‘Hard’, to ‘Harder than Hard’.

If you haven’t considered prioritizing transcripts to simplify the post-production process, here are a few benefits:

#1: Translate your film to a different language with ease.

Did you know that English is only the 3rd top language in the world? There is a high likelihood that your work will undergo translation for distribution and accessibility to a wider, international audience. In other parts of the world, they may speak Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, Hindi, and Arabic as their first language.

A transcript helps your translator quickly and efficiently finalize the translation.

#2: Use timecodes and timestamps to save time.

A timecode (alternatively, time code) is a sequence of numeric codes generated at regular intervals by a timing synchronization system. Timecode is used in video production, show control and other application which require temporal coordination or logging of recording or actions.

Timecodes are used as reference points for video editing. Your editors can work more efficiently with the use of transcriptions, especially if it has timestamps synchronized with the timecodes in the original video.

Through transcription, it saves your editor time from switching between viewing and editing footage.

#3: Skip ahead for revisions.

You don’t have to watch and rewatch scenes to find parts for revision.

Save valuable time and effort looking for the sections that need editing. A transcript on hand allows you to browse through timecodes and dialogue to see exactly when and where you need to skip ahead to perform the needed edits.

It’s also easier to make creative decisions seeing the entire work in text.

#4: Use video transcripts to add captions.

Nowadays, captions and subtitles are a must. They’re pretty much a prerequisite for video streaming sites and determine your video’s success when sharing on most platforms.

Here’s why captions matter.

“When it comes to watch time, subtitled videos increase view time by more than 12% and are watched an average 91% to completion. In comparison, videos without subtitles are only watched 66% to completion. When subtitles are included, 80% more people watch videos to completion.”

You can request closed captioning services from an established transcription company. With a good transcript in a compatible file format, you can add captions in as little as one step by directly uploading them to your platform. Just see how simple it is to caption videos for any social platform.

What are your options?

Now that you’ve learned the benefits of transcription for your post-production team, you can consider the following options for transcription.

DIY your transcripts.

If your crew has spare time and is confident in their transcription skills, you might consider doing this in-house.

However, this method can be tedious and time-consuming. Most likely, expect DIY transcription to take a long time and the context switching can be quite taxing. You’d rather focus on your core duties.

Depending on the size and expertise of your crew (and if your video transcription needs are low-volume), this is a good option.

Seek to get help if your hours of footage make DIY efforts cumbersome.

Use automated transcription.

Compared to DIY transcripts, using a video/audio software can aid in your transcriptions. Plus, it’s more cost-efficient than ordering text from a professional service.

However, there is a downside. Speech-to-text (STT) software accuracy can be unreliable, and often the output won’t make sense. In the end, you’ll most likely still have to manually correct and edit many errors.

Hire video transcription services.

As in the previously mentioned options, you can create your own online video transcript or use STT software to save money. However, take note that transcription takes time, while software accuracy is unreliable.

There is a fast, low-cost, and easy way to order accurate transcripts online for every video you produce. The process for ordering transcripts from video transcription services is quite seamless, too. With a few clicks on transcription sites, like Scribie, and a few hours after, you get your transcript.

Professional transcriptionists and QA teams with in-depth experience offer you accurate and reliable transcriptioning and closed captioning services.

Over To You

Video transcription can provide unbelievable convenience and value for saving your time and money when producing videos.

If you’re swamped and lack the time or people to transcribe for you, a smart choice is delegating this task to a professional or transcription service. Here are some key considerations for selecting the right service for your filmmaking needs.

Ordering a transcript online is a helpful hack for accurate documentation of your footage. You can use transcripts as a reference during editing and for quickly adding captions to your videos.

Looking for a video transcript now? Contact us and let us do the transcription for you.

The Key Element of a Perfect Social Video (For Mobile Audiences)

Allan CaegLeave a comment
The Key Elements of a Perfect Social Video (For Mobile Audiences)

You invest in quality video content and believe that you have every key ingredient for the perfect video covered. You may be right.

Except that you could be forgetting about a very important audience: mobile viewers. As a mobile-savvy creator, you may have already optimized your content for this audience, but it’s also smart to check in with changing mobile viewing behavior.

Remember the last time you saw your analytics page for the total no. of views? Studies reveal that 51% of all videos are being played on mobile. For Twitter, that goes up to 93 percent! Imagine, over half of those views would be coming from a mobile device.

How do you set apart your vlog, trailer, promo video, or product reviews from other online marketers, 87% of them, who also invest in video content the same way? If you’re sharing your videos on social accounts such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter, you’ll need to know how you can capture a mobile audience.

The Perfect Social Video

Let’s begin with a recap to cover some general rules for creating and sharing social videos with your mobile viewership in mind.

First, be conscious of the platform. Before creating your content, consider what type of content engages a platform’s particular audience. Facebook tends to have a more diverse audience, for example.

Then, you should optimize your video for your channels’ recommended specs. You can use a 1 : 1 aspect ratio to save time. Square videos generally work well with most platforms and tend to appear larger, taking up 78% more social media feed real estate.

Also, most platforms like it when you upload directly to their channel, and you’ll be rewarded for posting natively. Your video appears more prominent and you enjoy up to 10x more organic shares.

The Rise of Silent Watching

There are a number of compelling reasons why someone would watch with the sound off. They may be in an environment, like in an office or a noisy public space, where it’s not possible to have the sound on. Perhaps, the deluge of noise coming from one video after another in the feed drives them to turn the sound off.

“Sound is still an option [on Facebook], but it’s not required,” said Rye Clifton, director of experience at GSD&M. “If you can make something compelling without needing people to turn the audio on, you’re ahead of people who are not thinking that way.”

Facebook only counts a view after three seconds, so you’ll need to grab mobile users’ attention during the first few seconds. This means, even if it’s without sound.

Although “silent watching” may have become the de facto standard, that doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to get your point across anymore.

According to MEC North America, around 85-90% of their clients’ video views are silent. Yet, that doesn’t equate to less engagement. Internal studies by the agency revealed that KPIs, including brand lift and intent to purchase, remained unaffected by on or off sound.

Case Studies

For inspiration, check out some of these social pages and how they approach video creation and publishing. Many of these examples are from this article by Digiday UK.

Feel-good site LittleThings averages 150 million monthly views on Facebook and 85% watch without turning on the sound. See this great example.

LittleThings uses fun graphics that help capture mobile viewers’ attention, and they add subtitles to become more accessible. Since some of their videos are unscripted they transcribe them after it has been produced.

Another successful case study is the millennial news site Mic. They average 150 million monthly views, with 85% of its 30-second views are also without sound.

Reshma Saujani reveals why women should stop sending perfect emails

The way men send emails vs. women reveals a lot about sexism in America.Reshma Saujani explains why this needs to change. Buy her book here: https://amzn.to/2IlSAoK

Posted by Mic on Friday, April 5, 2019

Source: Mic

PopSugar shares that their silent video views are between 50 to 80%. Check out how their video below can be understood without dialogue or audio.

7 Hidden Surprises You'll Uncover When You're Tidying Up Your Home

Keeping up with the everyday messes with Swiffer can make the big cleaning days a lot easier — trust us!

Posted by PopSugar on Thursday, April 4, 2019

Source: PopSugar

NowThis is another page with posts that have gone viral. The news source also utilizes captions to relay news and become accessible to a wider audience.

Barack Obama Pays Tribute to NBA Star Dwyane Wade as He Retires

'Whenever you got knocked down, you always showed us how to get back up.' — Watch Obama's heartfelt tribute to Dwyane Wade as he says goodbye to the NBA

Posted by NowThis Sports on Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Source: NowThis

The Case for Captions

As a great majority of views are happening in silence, your videos on social need subtitling more than ever.

You’ll observe that videos on news feeds showcase subtitles that narrate on-screen dialogue. Although most still retain the background music or audio, subtitles help make your content easier to consume and understand from wherever your viewers may be watching, at home or on-the-go.

How do the subtitled videos compare to video content without them?

Here’s why captions are critical. When it comes to watch time, subtitled videos increase view time by more than 12% and are watched an average 91% to completion. In comparison, videos without subtitles are only watched 66% to completion. When subtitles are included, 80% more people watch videos to completion.

Adding Subtitles to Instantly Enhance Social Videos

A deterrent for many video producers and content creators when it comes to adding captions can be the cost for closed captioning services. However subtitle service providers, like Scribe, charge for as low as $.10/min.

You may be worried about finding a good captioning service to become your production partner for a one-time transcription or long-term partnership. See the important things to look for in How to Select the Best Video Captioning Service: 5 Key Considerations.

Another issue for you may be uploading the captions to videos on your platform. You actually don’t have to manually add and edit the captions for each video on every platform. There’s an easy way to directly upload your caption to social, including Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and others.

You can streamline the process through these 3 basic steps:

  1. Create a text file in the proper file format (.srt or .vtt)
  2. Upload the file directly to your platform or video editor.
  3. Done! Your video now has captions.

You’ll find more detailed instruction for adding captions to social videos here: How to Caption Videos for Instagram, Facebook and Other Social Platforms.

You’re aware of the importance of a great social media video strategy. But, are you doing what it takes to see positive results considering mobile viewing behavior? It might help to re-evaluate content strategy every now and then to see what you can improve.

Reach more mobile viewers by adding subtitles to your social videos. Get subtitles from Scribie today!

How to Select the Best Video Captioning Service: 5 Key Considerations

Allan CaegLeave a comment
5 Things to Consider for Selecting the Best Video Captioning Service

If you’re a video producer, you know how captions can improve your reach and accessibility.

Finding a good closed captioning service to become your production partner, whether in the long run or for a one-time order, needs careful consideration. You may have some top picks in mind. Before you decide, though, see if they’re the right choice for you and your audience.

Wondering about the most important things to look for in closed captioning services? Here are the 5 major things to consider, such as pricing, delivery time, quality, and more. Make sure that you’ve covered everything on the list.

Transparent Pricing

One of the first things you’ll consider is captioning cost. Rates by closed captioning services are typically calculated by audio minute, and different providers charge different rates depending on the packages and add-ons.

Captioning services will usually offer low base rates, but be careful of hidden costs, like service add-ons which usually incur additional charges on top of the regular rate. These can add up to a hefty dent in your wallet.

For example, TranscribeMe’s advertised rate begins at $.79/minute. However, if you need a transcription of technical content with speaker tracking, your rate goes up to $1.50/minute. Some companies charge more depending on your industry, the no. of speakers tracked, and speed of delivery.

Scribie’s Pricing

Our pricing is transparent and simple. We charge $0.80/minute, the lowest base rate in the industry that is most inclusive of features. When you order captions from Scribie, you receive more for less. This is the rate you pay no matter the file format, how many speakers need tracking, or whether your industry includes highly technical terms.

What you see is what you get.

Take note: Turn-around time is typically faster than 36 hours (depending on file length). Expect your order within 12 hours. Short files are often delivered within the hour.

Scribie’s completed transcript and captions are provided in multiple file formats for your uploading needs, such as VTT, SRT, PDF, MS Word, and more. You’ll find the right, compatible file format to upload or add your captions to videos on any platform. You can also use our easy captions editor to perform any edits beforehand.

Get your video captions as soon as within the hour. Order from Scribie today.

Integrations

Choosing a closed captioning service that allows integration to your platform saves you plenty of time and effort.

Integrations let you automate your captioning workflow. An integration helps simplify the importing and uploading process.

Scribie’s Integrations

Scribie lets you import your videos for captioning through a variety of ways, whichever is most convenient for you.

If adding captions to YouTube, our Youtube integration lets you directly upload your captions from our site.

Simply enter your YouTube link or upload a video file, order captions from Scribie, and save to YouTube once your captions are ready.

You can also easily import your video from Vimeo, Dropbox, Box, OneDrive, Google Drive, or other publicly accessible links.

Quality Assurance

What level of accuracy can you expect from the closed captioning service?

Automatic captions by software, as you may have experienced, can turn out wildly inaccurate. Manual captioning services by people are your best bet for highly accurate transcriptions. Many closed captioning services provide automatic closed captions (ACC) by software or don’t have a quality assurance process in place.

Scribie’s Accuracy

Our team of specialists offer captions with an accuracy of 99% or higher. We also have an in-house team of quality assurance experts and proofreaders.

Through Scribie’s signature four-step process, you’re assured quality and privacy.

Here’s how it works: Different transcribers work on different sections of your video, and Scribie proofreaders vet your captions’ quality multiple times. Our in-house QA experts analyze your file for accuracy, and then the accuracy of names, acronyms, and other potential errors are verified and fixed at every step.

Speed of Delivery

How fast will you receive your captions? Some closed captioning services charge extra for quick delivery and others can take as long as a week.

If you need your captions within the day, you may have to shell out an extra handful of dollars per minute of audio. Make sure that the provider you choose will be able to deliver your files within your required time.

Scribie’s Turnaround

Scribie delivers your file in as fast as an hour, and we don’t charge for rush delivery. Depending on file length, you can expect your order within 12 hours.

Customer Service

If you’re looking for a captioning partner for your videos, you’ll want a provider that’s communicative and available to address any of your concerns. Many providers offer impersonal services.

Will they be prompt in answering questions? Can they fulfill any custom requests? If you need a custom format or have any specific requests, they should be able to handle the fulfillment of your needed specifications.

Scribie’s Support

We’re flexible enough and care about your needs to personally accommodate requests. Our customer service is available the entire week to provide customer service, with live chat on weekdays and email support during weekends.

Over to You

Everyone has different needs when it comes to closed captioning services, and there are plenty of options to choose from. It helps to list down your needs and expectations beforehand and determine whether you chose the best closed captioning service for you. Watch out for any hidden fees and charges that are bloated with unessential features.

If you’re a video producer, podcaster, YouTuber, or social media influencer, we’ve designed Scribie to be the ideal choice for most of your captioning needs. Our simplified and transparent rates are among the lowest and most inclusive of essential features.

Ready to try Scribie? See why Scribie is the ideal closed captioning partner. Order your video captions now.

How to Caption Videos for Instagram, Facebook and Other Social Platforms

Allan CaegLeave a comment
watching video together

Whether you’re a social media influencer or marketer, your aim is to see your channels grow and videos go viral.

You’re probably noticing how recently, plenty of Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube videos include captions. With more people viewing videos on their mobile devices, most of them prefer to watch social media without sound. In fact, studies show that 85 percent of social videos are watched with the sound off.

There are also around 466 million people around the world who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. Adding captions to your videos on social platforms is one way to connect more meaningfully with your audience. Besides accessibility, your captioned videos rank higher your on search engines and can be repurposed to promote and boost your channel.

Captions are perfect for news, vlogs, memes, tutorials, music videos, brand commercials, and almost any other kind of social video.

For those with little time to manually transcribe videos, you may be surprised at how low-cost, fast, and easy it is to caption your videos. No matter where you intend to post them, you can directly add and upload captions to social media videos, with the help of closed captioning services.

So, we’ve created this all-in-one, beginner-friendly guide for how to add captions for videos on Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, or any other social network.

First, Create a Text File with Your Captions

Whenever you add captions to any platform, you have the option to upload captions via a text file in an SRT or VTT file format. This is the easiest way to go if you quickly want to add captions in bulk.

We recommend that you have an SRT or VTT file ready for any time you plan to add subtitles to your videos. The text file will include a transcript of your video with timestamps, such as the one below from ITS.

Source: ITS

Creating a text file before adding captions to your video greatly simplifies the entire process.

You won’t have to manually type in each caption or correct any errors on the platform itself, which is time-consuming and cumbersome. Plus, you’ll own a text copy of your video, which can be handy.

You can order a transcript from closed captioning services, like Scribie, and receive copies in different file formats, including SRT and VTT files for uploading captions.

How to order your captions from Scribie:

It’s fast and easy to get supported formats containing your captions from Scribie. Here’s how in 3 steps:

  1. Import your video file or link.
  2. Pay as little as $0.10 per audio minute.
  3. Download your captions in different file formats.

Once you have your text file, you can upload it to a wide range of social and video editing platforms to automatically add captions to videos.

Order your captions from Scribie today! Get text copies of your video in various file formats.

How to Add Video Captions for Facebook

To add captions to Facebook videos, you’ll first need to enable captions to show up in your video settings. Check your settings by going to the “Video Settings” section. From there, you can customize your Captions Display, including text size, background color, etc.

You can then add captions through your SRT file created outside of Facebook, which can also be used across a variety of mediums. (Creating SRT files can be done in a jiffy. See previous section for an easy how-to guide.)

When you upload your video, you will see different options for optimizing your post. Select the “Captions” tab, and you can upload your SRT file there as you’ll see in the image below.

Source: Idea Rocket

You can also add captions to a Facebook video that’s already posted. The process for this is very similar to when you upload the video.

On your already published post, there is a bar for the “edit video” setting. Once you access this setting, go to the “captions” section to “upload SRT file”. Then, select your .srt file, and hit upload.

How to Caption Videos for Instagram

Adding captions to Instagram is a bit more complicated.

Unlike Facebook or YouTube which have built-in editors, you won’t be able to upload captions directly from Instagram’s platform. You’ll need to use another software to “burn” your captions into the video first, aka a technique called “open captioning”.

So here’s what you do.

  1. First, create your text copy using Scribie to easily upload captions.
  2. Copy/paste or upload your text file captions into a video editing tool.
  3. Download and publish to Instagram.

You can easily upload your file to add subtitles through a free online video editing tool like Kapwing. You can also edit videos online through Rocketium, or Reevio. You may use multi-purpose desktop apps, such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Windows Movie Make, iMovie, or Final Cut Pro X.

Related: Why Captions are Critical for YouTube [Statistics]

The Simplest Way to Add Captions to YouTube

There is a way you can effortlessly create accurate, high-quality captions and add them to Youtube–all from one platform.

Scribie has a feature that integrates YouTube with the platform.

Here’s how you can import your YouTube videos and directly upload your .srt files to your YouTube video from Scribie.com.

First, you can enter the YouTube link or import a video file.

Afterward, you can hit “order transcript” to receive captions which are downloadable in various file formats, including .doc, PDF, SRT and VTT files. (Scribie’s rates for transcription are among the lowest at $0.10 per audio minute.)

Once the transcribed files are ready for download, click on the “Save to YouTube” button next to the .srt file. A pop up will ask you to enter the YouTube URL of the video.

Hit “Upload”…and Voila! Your captions have now been directly added to your video.

Over to You

Captions help promote your social video, repurpose content, and increase SEO ranking and accessibility to a wider community.

You don’t have to DIY the transcription of your video and painstakingly manually edit to add captions. Focus on other tasks that boost your channel, instead. Delegate this task by ordering transcripts from closed captioning services that simplify the process.

Get your video captions and upload them to socials from Scribie. Order a transcript today!

3 Ways to Add Captions to Your YouTube Videos

Allan Caeg1 Comment
3 Ways to Add Captions to Your YouTube Videos

As a content creator on YouTube, you want to see your channel grow.

Your success on YouTube can be greatly affected by adding captions to your videos.

It can act as a secret weapon to promoting your videos on different channels, repurposing content, ranking higher on search engines, and making your videos accessible to a wider community.

In fact, PLYMedia found that subtitled videos increase view time by more than 12% and are watched an average 91% to completion. On the other hand, videos without subtitles are only watched 66% to completion. When subtitles are included, 80% more people watch videos to completion.

See more interesting stats for why captions matter for YouTube.

You may think that adding captions to your YouTube videos is a huge investment in effort and cost, however, it can be quite easy and reasonably-priced!

Find out how to add captions to YouTube and your videos, whether you like being hands on doing-it-yourself or prefer outsourcing to specialists. Here are 3 different efficient and cost-effective ways for captioning, including numerous methods and tools for each.

Learn more about DIY options, automatic transcription software, and closed caption services for generating your video captions.

Let Scribie do the work. Order transcripts of your YouTube videos or upload subtitles to your videos.

Do-It-Yourself

One way of adding captions is to manually enter them into systems. You can write captions yourself into video editing software, such as YouTube’s video editor, Final Cut Pro X or Compressor.

In Final Cut Pro X, you can create captions for your video right in the timeline, or you can import them into your project through a text file. If you’re adding captions in your video editor, you can adjust, arrange, and edit them in the timeline. You can then share the video with embedded captions and publish on YouTube.

However, the manual method of typing and editing to perfection can be slow-moving and inconvenient. There is also a potential for more errors in your captions.

Another way to DIY captions is to create an SRT or VTT file. You can create these files in a number of different ways, such as in a text editor or through YouTube.

If you’re looking to add captions to your YouTube video, or other platform, they usually require specific file formats, like an SRT or VTT format. These are plain-text files that contain timestamps next to your text to ensure that your subtitles are displayed at the right time in your video.

Besides YouTube, SRT and VTT files will also work with most platforms and social media sites. All you’ll need is a single SRT or VTT file and you can upload it to your video on multiple platforms.

To create a text file, open your text editor (for Mac) or Notepad (for Windows), start a new document, type out the words, and make a note of timings. See the format here.

You can add SRT file subtitles to your videos with video editing software like Camtasia. This will mean that the subtitles will be hardcoded into your video file. A downside to this is that you won’t enjoy the SEO benefits and engagement that your shared video can otherwise enjoy with other captioning methods.

Automatic Transcriptions

Speech-to-text (STT) apps can automatically transcribe your video audio to text.

Some video editors include STT features for your video’s narration or dialogue.

Youtube also offers automatic transcription services. You can upload your video to YouTube and download the transcript.

However, the chance of automatic transcriptions coming out perfectly accurate is slim. The level of accuracy will vary based on factors like accents, background noise, and distortion. If you do decide to transcribe your video automatically for captions, you’ll have to carefully review and verify accuracy afterwards.

Closely evaluate the costs of errors and additional work required. Also, note that YouTube’s auto transcripts are reportedly not indexed by Google search. So, you won’t be able to take advantage of the SEO benefits of captioning.

If you’re getting captions for your promo video or personal vlog, you might as well add captions that have SEO value.

Manual Transcription Services

You can also completely hand off the task.

Without having to deal with erroneous automated captions or creating and adding captions yourself, you can hire professional transcribers, instead.

Order manual transcription online from Scribie or other similar services. (Scribie has the lowest flat rates, charged per audio minute, with the most feature-packed plans.) On Scribie, you can even download a file copy containing your captions and directly upload your captions to YouTube.

However, other transcription companies, like Rev or GoTranscript, require complicated processes and leave the caption uploading task to you.

Here’s a quick rundown of how you can add captions to YouTube with Scribie:

  1. Easily import your YouTube link or video file.
  2. Order a transcript.
  3. Once transcribed files are ready, hit on the “Save to YouTube” button.

Voilà!

Your captions have now been added to your video.

Ordering captions from transcription services ensure that your caption’s accuracy is 98% and above.

Over to You

Considering the deaf and hard-of-hearing, playing a video with sound isn’t always a possibility, as well. That’s why up to 85 percent of social videos are watched without sound.

If you want to create and directly add captions to your published YouTube videos, Scribie saves you time, money, and effort. Get video captions when you need it, and pay as you go.

Request a transcript and Scribie gives you an SRT or VTT text file version of your video content within a few hours or less. With YouTube integration, you can directly upload files to videos from Scribie.

Ready to try Scribie? Order a transcript or add captions to your YouTube videos today!