Transcribe lectures to text. Notes, chapters and review clips for students.
Lecture transcription turns what the instructor says into searchable text, with every word timed. To transcribe a lecture recording, upload the video or audio, or paste a YouTube link. We return the full text, chapters by topic and SRT captions, ready to share as lecture notes. If the lecture is on video, you also get short review clips.
Updated
Why transcribe a recorded lecture. Where recordings fall short, and how each gap gets fixed.
The lecture runs 90 minutes. The student needs one topic.
Nobody rewatches a full lecture to review reinforcement schedules. We split the recording into chapters by topic, each with a title and timestamp, and you paste the list into the YouTube description, where it becomes chapters as long as the first one starts at 0:00, there are at least three and each runs 10 seconds or more. On a course platform, the same list works as the lesson outline. On Studio and Agency, each chapter also lists its key moments, so students can jump straight to the example or the definition.
Lecture notes without retyping
The transcript is word for word, with the instructor's voice kept apart from student questions. Fix a technical term or a name in the text and the fix carries over to the captions on your clips. Then export a PDF or TXT and share it as lecture notes. Not sure what was said at some point? Search finds the word in the text, with the time it was said.
Exam review without sitting through it again
On Studio and Agency, the transcript becomes a diagram: a mind map to review concepts, a flowchart for processes like the Krebs cycle, a timeline for a history lecture. Students see the shape of the whole lecture on one screen and go back to the video only where they are still stuck.
Review clips that keep the whole explanation
We suggest 4 to 60 clips per video, each with a 0 to 100 score and a moment type such as teaching or insight. Pick the 90 s to 3 min range and add a plain instruction like "only the worked examples". Need an exact passage? Select it in the transcript and trim word by word. 16:9 keeps the whiteboard and slides in frame, and the focus area helps when the camera sees the whole room.
Deaf students, ESL students, students on the bus
The full lecture comes with an SRT file using the YouTube preset. On clips, captions are burned in with any of our 235 styles. For international students, on Studio and Agency, captions can be translated into 9 languages, including Spanish, French, Japanese and Chinese, and burned into the clip too.
Roll call, breaks and late starts
Before processing, pick the part you need. Only that range is processed and counted against your quota, so the ten minutes of waiting at the start stay out. A live review session on YouTube works too: paste the livestream link and we process it once the replay is available.
How to transcribe a recorded lecture in 3 steps
- 01
Upload the lecture
A video or audio file, or a YouTube link, livestreams included. Mark just the lecture itself and leave roll call and waiting time out.
- 02
We structure it
Full text with every word timed, instructor and students on separate lines, chapters by topic and clips with a score and a moment type.
- 03
Hand it to students
Chapters in the video description, a PDF of notes, SRT or translated captions and review clips in whatever format your course platform needs.
One 88-minute lecture, from upload to study materials
A psychology instructor at a community college teaches operant conditioning over Zoom and downloads the MP4 afterwards. On upload, she marks the range starting at minute 5, so attendance and small talk stay out of her quota. She picks 90 s to 3 min clips and adds one instruction: "only concept explanations".
Within minutes the file opens with the full transcript. Her explanations sit apart from student questions, and the chapters follow the lecture: recap, what operant conditioning adds, reinforcement schedules, the slot machine exercise. Where the audio got muffled, she corrects "Skinner" in the text, and the captions on her clips pick up the right spelling.
For the class, she pastes the chapters into the video description and posts the lecture to the course page. She downloads the PDF as lecture notes and, on Studio, generates a mind map that goes to students as a study guide for the midterm. The clips tagged as teaching, with the highest scores, become a short review playlist with burned-in captions.
To promote next semester's section, she takes the clip with the strongest hook, renders it in 9:16 with the frame following the speaker and posts it to Reels. An exchange student asks for Spanish captions, and she downloads the translated file. All of it came from one upload.
What you get from every lecture transcript
| Output | Format | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Full transcript | TXT or PDF | Lecture notes and keyword search |
| Chapters by topic | Timestamped list in YouTube description format | Navigating the video lesson |
| Mind map, flowchart and timeline | Diagram (Studio and Agency) | Exam review |
| Review clips | MP4 in 16:9, 9:16, 1:1 or 4:5 | Review playlists and course promotion |
| Captions | SRT with the YouTube preset, or burned into the clip | Accessibility and muted viewing |
| Translated captions | 9 languages (Studio and Agency) | International students |
| Audio | MP3 of the lecture or of excerpts | Listening on the commute |
More than lecture transcription. The same upload works for other kinds of teaching.
See also
Two 90-minute lectures a week come to about 13 hours a month. That fits Studio.
Compare plans →- Transcription with speakers and chapters
- Emotions in every line
- Automatic clips with animated captions
- Remove pauses and filler words
- Downloads without watermark
See all features
- Manual clips, trimmed word by word
- Saved clip templates for the next ones
- Emotion filter
- Favorite and export lines in bulk
- Export as TXT, PDF, SRT, MP3 and MP4
- Everything in Pro
- Scored hooks and scripts
- Timeline for Premiere, DaVinci and Final Cut
- Translation and speaker names
- Your logo and your font on clips
- Connector for ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini
- Team: each person at R$ 29/month, with 3 more hours
See all features
- Moments inside each chapter
- Diagrams: mind map, flow and timeline
- Image and font library for clips
- Projects to organize by client
- Support
- Everything in Studio
- FilmScribe Plugin for DaVinci Resolve Studio (beta)
- Team with 2 people included
- Priority support
- Extra hours at R$ 7
3-day trial or 1 hour of material. See the result on your own recording before adding a card.
Frequently asked questions
How do I transcribe a recorded lecture?
Upload the lecture file (MP4, MOV, MP3, M4A and more) or paste a YouTube link. Pick the range you need and we return the text with every word timed, each speaker on their own lines and chapters by topic. You can edit it, search it and export it as TXT or PDF.
What should I look for in a lecture transcription app?
Word-level timestamps, so you can jump from text to video. Speaker labels, so questions do not blend into the lecture. Search, editing and export to TXT, PDF and SRT. Chapters for long recordings, and no cap on length. FilmScribe does all of this, and adds review clips for video lectures and, on Studio and Agency, translated captions.
Can I turn a lecture into notes or a mind map?
Yes. Every plan exports the transcript as a PDF or TXT you can share as notes. On Studio and Agency you can also generate a mind map, a flowchart or a timeline straight from the transcript. For a written summary, the Studio and Agency connector lets ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini read the transcript and write from it.
Can I add chapters for students?
Chapters come out automatically on every plan, each with a title and timestamp. Copy the list into the video description and YouTube splits the progress bar by topic, as long as the first chapter starts at 0:00, there are at least three and each runs 10 seconds or more. On other platforms, use the same list as the lesson outline.
Does it work with Zoom, Google Meet or Teams recordings?
Yes. Download the recording as MP4 or M4A and upload it. We accept MP4, MOV, MKV, WEBM, MP3, WAV, M4A and other common formats. If the lecture is already on YouTube, paste the link instead, including livestreams.
What about lectures in other languages?
Transcription works in 90+ languages, with automatic language detection. On Studio and Agency, captions can be translated into 9 languages. A Spanish class taught in Spanish, for example, is transcribed in Spanish and can get English captions for the students.
How much does lecture transcription cost?
You pay for the range you process: a 90-minute lecture uses 1.5 hours of your plan. Pro is R$ 59 a month with 10 hours. Studio is R$ 89 with 20 hours and adds mind maps, translation and the connector. Two 90-minute lectures a week come to about 13 hours, which fits Studio. Try it first for 3 days or 1 hour of material.