Searching and Downloading YouTube subtitles

[Scaramanga]

Is there a tool that will transcript a Youtube video ? For example, I remembered that Corbell had said in Weaponized that the jellyfish UFO looked like it had 'scales'.....but I then had to wade through 1 hour 45 mins of video to find the exact location, which I eventually did. In another case I wanted to post quotes from a 3 hour long video on Travis Walton, but 3 hours of waffle is a lot to wade through to get a few juicy lines and I am wondering is there a tool or an easier method.

 

[Mick West]

There are sites that let you download the subtitles as .SRT files, which have timestamps. They tend to be rather spammy, but they work.
https://savesubs.com/

96
00:21:32,840 --> 00:21:38,159
were geometric as if like it was

497
00:21:35,520 --> 00:21:41,159
specifically said to me like an armor or

498
00:21:38,159 --> 00:21:43,400
like a fish scales so when geometric

499
00:21:41,159 --> 00:21:45,320
pieces that and you notice also it's

500
00:21:43,400 --> 00:21:46,880
stiff right so there's not a lot of wind

Content from External Source

I use an app on the Mac called "Downie" to do this. I also often drop the audio into otter.ai to get a transcript with names.

 

[Mendel]

I think I've used downsub.com before, you drop a youtube link and it offers you a choice of languages. Just be sure to avoid clicking on the ads.

When posting, I usually edit youtube transcripts to be more readable; I'd post Mick's example above like this:

[21:32] were geometric as if, like, it was specifically said to me, like an armor or like a fish scales, so when geometric pieces that,
[21:43] and you notice also, it's stiff, right, so there's not a lot of wind

Content from External Source

And then I give it a listen to check and clean up inaccuracies, especially if it's an auto-translation.

Remember, the original source of the transcript is the video, there's no point in preserving the subtitle format and to-the-second time stamps for every word. Make so the intended readers don't have to struggle.

 

[NorCal Dave]

If one doesn't want to download an ad filled app or if you're stuck like me and can't, here's a few steps that might work. For my normal surfing/metabunking I have cheap laptop pc with the protected version of Windows for business and preschoolers that makes all non-Microsoft apps verboten. So.....

Many YouTube videos have automated transcripts. The button to turn them on is found under the videos description:



Once turned on, the transcript will play along to the right of the video like this:



One can easily copy and paste the transcript into a Word document. Long transcriptions might take a few "copies" to get it all. From there I used the "Editing" button with the spyglass search symbol and typed in "metabunk" which it highlighted for me in the transcript:



A few more steps, but no app needed. I think I've used the same technique on my Mac with the "Pages" programs.

 

[flarkey]

"Flaky"

 

[NorCal Dave]

"Flaky"

If you Brits would pronounce your "R"s like you're supposed to instead of tacking them onto the ends of words where they don't belong, the auto transcript might understand "FlaRkey" .

You are correct though, some corrections might be needed, and as Mendal noted above a lot of the timestamps can be eliminated.

 

[JoeyisNotMyName]

Many YouTube videos have automated transcripts. The button to turn them on is foun

This is the method I use, except I don't copy & paste the transcript. I simply use CTRL + F and search the text in the browser. Works well and is great when I'm in a rush.

 

[Charlie Wiser]

Once turned on, the transcript will play along to the right of the video like this:

You can also toggle off the timestamps then copy-paste to get a cleaner transcript.

 

[jarlrmai]

There are some AI tools that will try to generate subtitles not sure if they are better than Youtubes own though.

 

[Mendel]

There are some AI tools that will try to generate subtitles not sure if they are better than Youtubes own though.

That was what Mick was referring to when he mentioned otter.ai.