Video to text converter: Transcribe MP4, MOV and MKV files

Two ways to transcribe video to text: In the background, or while listening

You do not have to watch a video to get its text, but you can if you want to.

If you only need part of a long video, press Choose a range. Twenty minutes you need will not take two hours of waiting:

What happens to the parts you skip?

While listening, transcription follows the player, so each thing you do has a result:

• Pause, and transcription waits.
• Seek forward, and the part you jumped is not transcribed. The text goes on from the new place.
• Seek back, and a part already transcribed is skipped rather than written again. The same sentence does not enter the text twice.
• To fill a gap later, seek there and listen, or pick that range in the background mode.

The time bar shows what has been done. Paragraphs written later go to the end of the text rather than into their place by time, so follow the order by the paragraph times.

From MP4, MOV and MKV: Which files work

MP4, M4V, MOV, MKV and WebM files are accepted. Your browser decodes the sound, so a file with an unusual audio codec may not open. Exporting the video again with a common codec solves that.

For very long files, memory decides. In the background mode the browser opens all the sound at once. If it does not fit, the file is played from a hidden copy instead, which takes as long as the video. If your computer is slow, see choosing a model, or let the cloud or a stronger device do the work.

Video to text with timestamps

Each paragraph shows its time in the video, and clicking the time takes the video there. That is how you get from a doubtful sentence back to the sound. Times always count from the start of the video, even when you chose a range.

If several people talk, speaker separation is on by default, and naming a speaker takes one click.

From transcript to subtitles

When you export, choose by what you need:

• As a document: DOCX, ODT, Markdown or TXT. Paragraph times do not go into these files.
• As subtitles: SRT or VTT. Times are in the file, and the speaker’s name is within the text.

The subtitle generator guide shows how to bring the file into YouTube Studio or an editing program, and covers Instagram Reels and TikTok.

When a file is not needed, or another way is enough

• On YouTube, no file is needed: YouTube to text works from the link and tells you to check YouTube’s own transcript first.
• With a Microsoft 365 subscription, Word’s Transcribe also takes MP4 files. Audio to Word transcription compares the two routes.
• Looking at other tools? See how LiveType compares with Sonix.

Only transcribe your own videos or content you have the right to process.

What video to text AI will not do

LiveType does not read on-screen text, burn subtitles into the picture, translate or summarize. It does not store or publish the video. Background music and people talking over each other weaken the text, so check those parts by ear. AI transcription accuracy explains why the model goes wrong and where.

The free plan includes 30 minutes in total. What counts is the length of video processed, not how long you wait, and if you choose a range only that range counts.