Transcribe a long AC3 file the speech, not the surround.
A long AC3 audio track, the Dolby Digital format on DVDs and many camcorders, runs about 86 MB per hour in stereo and up to 202 MB per hour in 5.1, so a 10-hour track lands close to the 2 GB line, and it transcribes at about 2 minutes per audio hour. The first 20 minutes are free, and a 4-hour ceremony goes on the $6 pack of 500 minutes.
AC3, worked out
Six channels of sound, and only one of them usually carries the voices.
Where AC3 files come from
AC3 is the audio inside most DVD video and inside the AVCHD footage many camcorders recorded. You get a separate .ac3 file when a tool pulls the soundtrack out of a disc or a clip, which is a quick way to keep a long ceremony or conference talk without the gigabytes of picture.
Size from the bitrate
Stereo AC3 at 192 kbps works out to about 86 MB an hour. A 5.1 track at 384 kbps is about 173 MB, and at 448 kbps about 202 MB. Ten hours at 448 kbps is just over 2 GB, so a very long surround track starts once a pack is on the account; a stereo one never does.
Centre channel, clear speech
In a 5.1 mix the dialogue normally sits in the centre channel, with room sound and music around it. Downmixed, it is still the voices that get transcribed. If the upload refuses the file, convert it to MP3 first, as stereo; that also settles any channel layout the upload page does not expect.
What the track turns into
A long talk or ceremony comes back with a brief of what was said, chapters with timestamps, the names, numbers and dates mentioned, and the questions it answers. Each speaker is identified and named in the summary, key quotes and chapters.
Why AC3 is awkward elsewhere
Most transcription tools were built for a phone memo, not a disc soundtrack.
✗ A soundtrack nobody accepts
An .ac3 file is unfamiliar to many upload pickers, and a long one meets time limits built for short clips.
- Pickers that hide the .ac3 extension
- Surround channels read as noise
- Hour-long caps on free tools
- Re-ripping the disc to get a smaller file
- Separate files for every chapter
- No overview of a whole event
✓ The track, transcribed whole
One AC3 goes up and comes back as a single text on a single timeline.
- 10 hours or 5 GB per file
- Two minutes or so per hour of sound
- 20 free minutes to try it on
- $6 for 500 minutes that never expire
- Timed chapters for each part of the event
- TXT, DOCX, SRT, VTT and JSON
Sample
A conference afternoon, filmed on a camcorder.
Illustrative only: this exchange was written for this page and comes from no real conference. The timestamps place each remark in a long AC3 track.
Export
One transcript. Five clean formats.
Every pack exports all five — no format is held back for a higher tier.
Plain text
De-ummed paragraphs. Ready to paste.
SRT captions
Timed to the speech. Every video editor reads this.
WebVTT
HTML5 player + YouTube uploads.
Show notes
Formatted with chapters and pull-quotes.
Machine-readable
Timestamped text for your own tools.
Pricing
Honest pricing, no surprises.
A pack from $6 (500 minutes) opens the full transcript. After that, no subscription and no auto-renew — every tier is a one-time minute pack, and credits never expire. Buy once, use the minutes whenever you need them.
Casual pack
$6/500 min
8 hours of audio — $0.72 an hour. One-time — credits never expire.
- 500 minutes of audio
- All export formats
- Unlimited AI chat per transcript
- Executive summary & key quote
Best value
$12/2,000 min
33 hours of audio — $0.36 an hour. Credits never expire.
- 2,000 minutes of audio
- Priority queue
- All export formats
- Unlimited AI chat per transcript
Bulk pack
$24/5,000 min
83 hours of audio — $0.29 an hour. Credits never expire.
- 5,000 minutes of audio
- Priority queue
- API access for batch pipelines
- All export formats
FAQ
Long AC3 files, the common questions.
How long does a long AC3 track take?
Roughly 2 minutes of processing per hour of audio, so a 4-hour track is ready in about 8 minutes and a 10-hour one in about 20. AC3 files are small, so the upload is rarely the slow part.
What does a 4-hour ceremony or a box of camcorder tapes cost?
A 4-hour ceremony uses 240 of the $6 pack's 500 minutes. Thirty hours of digitised camcorder footage is 1,800 minutes and fits the $12 pack of 2,000. Packs are one-time purchases and the minutes do not expire.
How large is an AC3 file per hour?
About 86 MB at 192 kbps stereo, 173 MB at 384 kbps and 202 MB at 448 kbps, the common 5.1 rates on DVD. One file can be up to 5 GB; before the first pack the line is 2 GB, which only a very long 5.1 track reaches.
The event filled several discs. Can it go up as one?
Yes, if the joined audio is 10 hours or less. Join the AC3 tracks, or their MP3 conversions, in order with ffmpeg or Audacity, then upload one file so the timestamps run continuously. Longer than 10 hours goes in as two files.
Which languages work?
99 languages are detected automatically, including Japanese, Hebrew, Spanish and Afrikaans, with no setting to choose. A wedding speech that switches between English and Tagalog is handled. Music and applause on the track are not transcribed; the speech is.
What can I export, and where does the AC3 audio go?
Five formats: TXT and DOCX to read, SRT and VTT as captions, JSON for software. AC3 tracks are transcribed on our own servers and are never used for training, and both the file and its transcript can be deleted at any time.
Related
Other disc and camera formats
Upload the AC3 track. The track's first 20 minutes are free.
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