MOV to text: a transcript of your iPhone or camera video
Upload a MOV file and get its spoken words back as a transcript you can correct: who said each line and the moment they said it. Made for the videos an iPhone films and the MOV files some cameras and Mac screen recordings save.
Transcribe a MOV
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
- Word, TXT and PDF downloads on Free as well
A MOV's speech, as a transcript
Here is a short real recording, NASA's Apollo 11 landing, written out by PrismaScribe the way its Word download prints it: a name over each speaker's words and a [m:ss] time before every line. Whatever is said in your MOV is laid out like this; the TXT download has the same lines without the 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]
Once your video is text
A few things people do with a MOV's transcript.
- Write up an interview you filmed. Pull quotes with their times from a conversation you recorded on your phone, without replaying it line by line.
- Notes from a recorded class or talk. Turn a lecture or a sermon you filmed into text, then make a summary or a quiz from it.
- A script from a take. Get the words of a vlog or a piece to camera as text to tighten, reuse or translate.
- Find a moment in a long clip. Search for a word and click the line to hear that point, instead of dragging through the video.
- Captions for social posts. Download the transcript as SRT or VTT to add subtitles in your editor or when you upload the video.
- Share what was said. Send the transcript to the people who need it, so they read the video rather than watch all of it.
How to convert MOV to text
Get the video where you can upload it, then let it transcribe.
1 Get the MOV off the phone or camera
On an iPhone, open the website in the phone's browser and choose the video, or send it to your computer first. From a camera, copy the clip off its card.
2 Upload and start
Drop the MOV in, or several clips at once. Choose the language or leave it on detect, and say how many people speak if you know.
3 Correct and download
Click a word to hear it and fix it, swap Speaker 1 for a real name, then download Word (DOCX), TXT or PDF, or copy the text.
30 min of free transcription a month, no card.
Your video, readable in another language
Translate
Filmed someone speaking a language your audience doesn't? Translate the MOV's transcript into any of 99+ languages and download it as TXT, or as SRT or VTT subtitles timed to the clip.
- A translated subtitle file keeps each line's start and end.
- Free has 20,000 characters of translation a month.
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]
MOV in, text out
Where MOV files come from, why they're big, and what you download.
MOV, the video you upload
MOV is Apple's QuickTime file format: a container for video and sound. An iPhone's Camera app usually saves its videos as .mov, and so do Mac screen recordings and some cameras. Only the speech in the sound is transcribed. Phone video is heavy, so a MOV usually meets a plan's size limit before its length limit.
- iPhone video in 1080p HD
- About 60 MB a minute at 30 fps
- 15 min of it
- About 900 MB, past Free's 500 MB
- HD video per file
- About 30 min on Starter and Premium (2 GB), 1 hr 25 min on Pro (5 GB)
- Not taken
- M4V; save it as MP4 or MOV
Sizes from the estimates iPhone's Settings › Camera › Record Video shows; 4K at 30 fps is nearly three times the 1080p size. MOV, and not M4V, is on the uploader's list of accepted files.
Word and TXT, what you download
Word (DOCX) gives you a document with each speaker's name in bold and a time before every line, ready to edit or print. TXT is the plain-text version, opening anywhere, with a header naming the file, its language, length and date.
- Switches
- Speaker names, timestamps
- More formats
- PDF, Markdown, SRT, VTT
- Languages
- Any of 99+
- Your fixes
- Carried into every download
As the export window in the web app offers them.
What it doesn't do
Worth knowing before a long upload.
- No M4V files. An .m4v isn't one of the formats we take. Save or export the video as MP4 or MOV.
- No text read from the picture. Signs, slides and captions in the frame stay out of the transcript; it holds what is said.
- No picture in the player. Your dashboard plays the clip's sound next to the transcript, not the video.
- No smaller copy made for you. A file over your plan's size is refused, not shrunk. Export a smaller copy first.
- PDF in Latin, Greek and Cyrillic letters only. For speech in another script, download Word, TXT, Markdown, SRT or VTT.
Good to know
- Background noise removal and custom vocabulary are on a paid plan. Noise removal uses 2× the minutes, custom vocabulary 1.25×.
- On Free: 30 min a month, at most 15 min a day, one video at a time.
- A web upload on Free longer than 15 min has its first 15 min transcribed. The iPhone app refuses it instead.
- Top-up hours remove Free's daily and per-file time limits. Its 500 MB size limit stays.
Plans
Monthly and yearly prices for every plan. The full comparison is on 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
Your clips stay private
- Encrypted while they travel and where they're stored, open only to you and whoever you share with.
- Never used to train AI models.
- Yours until you delete them.
MOV to text FAQ
Something else? Email hello@prismascribe.ai.
How do I convert a MOV file to text?
Create a free account and upload the MOV. Leave the language on detect or pick it, then start. The transcript appears in your dashboard, and an email tells you when, so you can close the tab. Check it, fix any word by clicking it, and download Word, TXT or PDF, or copy the text.
Why is my iPhone video too big for the free plan?
Video takes far more space than sound. iPhone's own settings put a minute of 1080p HD at 30 fps at about 60 MB, so 15 min of it is around 900 MB, more than Free's 500 MB; 4K is bigger still. Upload a shorter clip, export a smaller copy, or use Starter or Premium (2 GB a file) or Pro (5 GB).
How long a MOV can I transcribe?
15 min on Free, 5 hr on Starter and Premium, 8 hr 20 min on Pro. With HD phone video, the file size usually decides first: 2 GB holds about 30 min of 1080p and 5 GB about 1 hr 25 min. On Free, a longer web upload is transcribed up to its first 15 min.
How do I get a video off my iPhone to upload it?
Open the website in Safari or another browser on the phone and choose the video when you upload, or send it to your computer and upload it there. In the PrismaScribe iPhone app, pick the MOV from Files.
Is it free to convert a MOV to text?
Yes, on the Free plan, without a card: 30 min of transcription a month, up to 15 min a day, for files up to 15 min and 500 MB, one at a time, every download included. For bigger or longer videos, compare the plans or buy top-up hours that never expire.
Can it transcribe a Mac screen recording?
Yes. Screen recordings on a Mac are usually saved as .mov, so they upload as they are. Only the speech in its sound is transcribed, not the text on the screen, and a recording made without sound has nothing to transcribe.
Will it tell the speakers apart in my video?
Yes, on every plan, up to 32 speakers: an interview, a family video or a panel comes back as Speaker 1, Speaker 2 and so on. Name each once and the whole transcript updates. How speaker identification works.
Can I get the transcript as a Word file?
Yes. Word (DOCX) is one of six downloads, beside TXT, PDF, Markdown, SRT and VTT, each with speaker names and timestamps on or off. PDF is for Latin, Greek and Cyrillic letters; other scripts go to Word or TXT.
What about M4V files?
M4V isn't one of the formats we take. Export or save the video as MP4 or MOV, then upload that.
Which languages can the people in the video speak?
Any of 99+; set the language or let it be detected. To read it in another, translate the transcript into any of 99+ languages. Translate video.
More ways in, more files out
Transcripts from other files, and the full list of formats.
Get the words out of your next video.
30 min of free transcription a month, no card.
One recording in.
Everything you need out.