AVI to text: transcripts of older camera clips and home video
Upload an AVI and read what was said in it as a transcript you can correct, each line with its speaker and its time. For the clips an old digital camera left on a memory card, transferred family tapes, and video kept from older Windows software.
Transcribe an AVI
Free: 30 min a month, no card. Your file stays in this browser until you sign up. Compare plans
- About an hour of video in about two minutes
- Speakers told apart on every plan
An AVI's speech, written out
Here's an actual recording, NASA's Apollo 11 landing, transcribed by PrismaScribe and shown as the Word download lays it out: the speaker's name over their words, a [m:ss] time opening every line. Whoever talks in your AVI is written out the same way; in TXT the lines are identical, without formatting.
Apollo 11 landing
Neil Armstrong
[0:00] Houston, uh, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.
CAPCOM, Charlie Duke
[0:06] Roger, Twang... Tranquility. We copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathing again. Thanks a lot. [beeping]
Apollo 11 landing.srt
- 100:00:00,500 to 00:00:05,980Neil Armstrong: Houston, uh, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.
- 200:00:06,640 to 00:00:08,478CAPCOM, Charlie Duke: Roger, Twang...
- 300:00:08,478 to 00:00:12,494Tranquility. We copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue.
- 400:00:12,494 to 00:00:14,720We're breathing again. Thanks a lot. [beeping]
Apollo 11 landing.vtt
WEBVTT
- 100:00:00.500 to 00:00:05.980Neil Armstrong: Houston, uh, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.
- 200:00:06.640 to 00:00:11.301CAPCOM, Charlie Duke: Roger, Twang... Tranquility. We copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys
- 300:00:11.301 to 00:00:14.720CAPCOM, Charlie Duke: about to turn blue. We're breathing again. Thanks a lot. [beeping]
When your AVI is text
Some of the things people do with an AVI's transcript.
- Keep family stories in writing. Write out what grandparents said at a birthday or on a holiday clip, so the words outlast the old file.
- Catalogue a video archive. Give each digitised tape or camera clip a searchable transcript, and find a recording by what was said in it.
- Reuse an old interview or talk. Turn a recorded interview or presentation into text you can quote, summarise or put into a report.
- Jump to the part you want. Search the transcript for a word, then click its line to hear that moment instead of watching from the start.
- Subtitles for a family film. Download SRT or VTT and add them to the clip in your editor, or when you share it.
How to convert AVI to text
Copy the clip somewhere you can reach it, then upload.
1 Copy the AVI to your computer
Take the clip off the camera's memory card, the transfer disc or the old drive. If it's very large, export a smaller MP4 copy first.
2 Upload and begin
Add the AVI, or a batch of clips together. Pick the language or leave it on detect, and give the number of speakers if you know it.
3 Correct and save
Click a word to play it and put it right, swap Speaker 1 for a name, then download Word (DOCX), TXT or PDF, or copy the text.
30 min of transcription a month for free, with no card.
Share the clip with family abroad
Translate
Relatives who don't speak the language of the video? Translate the AVI's transcript into any of 99+ languages and download it as TXT, or as SRT or VTT subtitles in step with the clip.
- A translated subtitle line starts and ends where the original did.
- Free includes 20,000 characters of translation monthly.
More
Copy all
Export
- TXT
- SRT, selected
- VTT
Apollo 11 landing_es.srt
- 100:00:00,500 to 00:00:05,980Houston, eh, aquí Base Tranquilidad. El Águila ha aterrizado.
- 200:00:06,640 to 00:00:14,720Recibido, Tranq... Tranquilidad. Los copiamos en tierra. Tenían a un montón de tipos a punto de ponerse azules. Volvemos a respirar. Muchas gracias. [pitidos]
AVI in, transcript out
Where AVI files come from, why they can be large, and what you download.
AVI, the clip you upload
AVI stands for Audio Video Interleave, a container Microsoft introduced in 1992, built on its RIFF file structure. Many compact digital cameras of the 2000s recorded their video clips as AVI, and older Windows software and home-video transfers often produce it too. The speech in the sound track is what gets transcribed. AVI files can be large, so check the size against your plan before a long upload.
- Full name
- Audio Video Interleave
- Introduced
- By Microsoft in 1992, based on RIFF
- Often from
- Older digital cameras, Windows software, tape transfers
- Over the size limit
- Refused, not shrunk; export an MP4 copy first
Microsoft's documentation of the AVI and RIFF file formats; the uploader's list of accepted files.
TXT or Word, the files you get
Word (DOCX) is a document with every speaker's name in bold and a time in front of each line, easy to edit, annotate or print. TXT is the same text with no styling, opening in anything, under a header with the file name, language, length and date.
- Optional
- Speaker names and timestamps
- Plus
- PDF, Markdown, SRT and VTT
- Languages
- Any of 99+
- Corrections
- Saved into every download
Per the web app's export window.
What it doesn't do
Worth reading before uploading an old clip.
- No automatic downsizing. An AVI bigger than your plan's size limit is refused. Export a smaller MP4 copy and upload that.
- No text taken from the picture. Date stamps, titles and signs in the frame aren't transcribed, only speech.
- No picture beside the transcript. The dashboard player plays the clip's sound alongside the text, without the video.
- No words where nothing was said. A silent clip, or one where the camera recorded no sound, has nothing to transcribe.
- PDF only for Latin, Greek and Cyrillic letters. Speech in other scripts can be downloaded as Word, TXT, Markdown, SRT or VTT.
Good to know
- Background noise removal and custom vocabulary are included on a paid plan. Noise removal counts 2× the minutes and custom vocabulary 1.25×.
- On Free you get 30 min a month, up to 15 min on any day, and one clip transcribing at once.
- A web upload on Free that runs past 15 min is transcribed up to 15 min. The iPhone app won't take it at all.
- Top-up hours drop Free's time limits for each day and each file. Its 500 MB file size limit remains.
Plans
What each plan costs monthly or yearly. For the complete comparison, open the pricing page.
30 min a month, files up to 15 min
- Monthly
- $0
- Yearly
- $0
5 hr a month, files up to 5 hr
- Monthly
- $7 a month
- Yearly
- $52 a year, Save 38%$4.33 a month, billed once a year
20 hr a month, files up to 5 hr
- Monthly
- $20 a month
- Yearly
- $150 a year, Save 38%$12.50 a month, billed once a year
40 hr a month, files up to 8 hr 20 min
- Monthly
- $40 a month
- Yearly
- $300 a year, Save 38%$25 a month, billed once a year
Family video kept private
- Encrypted as they upload and while stored, opened only by you and those you share with.
- Never part of training AI models.
- Kept for you until you delete them.
AVI to text FAQ
Need to know more? Email hello@prismascribe.ai.
How can I transcribe an AVI video?
Open a free account and upload the AVI. Choose the spoken language or keep it on detect and start. We email you when the transcript is ready, so there's no need to keep the page open. Check it, click any word to correct it, then download Word, TXT or PDF, or copy the text.
What is an AVI file?
Audio Video Interleave, a video container Microsoft brought out in 1992, built on its RIFF format. It was widely used on Windows and by digital cameras, so you mostly find it in older collections.
My camera clips from years ago are AVI. Will they work?
AVI is one of the formats the uploader takes, so copy the clips off the card or old drive and upload them as they are. The PrismaScribe iPhone app can pick an AVI from Files as well.
What if my AVI is too large?
A file over your plan's size is refused, not shrunk. Export a smaller MP4 copy in a video editor, or cut the video into shorter parts. Per file, Free takes 500 MB, Starter and Premium 2 GB, and Pro 5 GB.
How much does it cost to convert AVI to text?
Nothing on Free, with no card: 30 min a month, up to 15 min a day, files of up to 15 min and 500 MB, one at a time, every download format included. For a large archive, compare the plans or buy top-up hours, which never expire.
Can I download it as a Word document?
Yes. Word (DOCX) is one of six download formats, along with TXT, PDF, Markdown, SRT and VTT, with speaker names and timestamps each switched on or off. PDF works for Latin, Greek and Cyrillic letters; other scripts belong in Word or TXT.
Can it tell family members apart in a home video?
Yes, on every plan, up to 32 speakers: each voice comes back as Speaker 1, Speaker 2 and so on. Put a name in once and the whole transcript changes with it. How speaker identification works.
The people in my video speak another language. Is that a problem?
No. Any of 99+ can be transcribed, set by you or detected. To read it in a different language, translate the transcript into any of 99+. Translate video.
More formats, more downloads
Other files to transcribe, and pages covering every format we take.
Write out what your old videos say.
No card needed: 30 min of transcription each month, free.
One recording in.
Everything you need out.