Transcribe a long DV tape capture MiniDV interviews and events, as text.
A DV tape capture is transcribed at about 2 minutes per audio hour, so a 60-minute MiniDV tape is ready in roughly 2 minutes and a box of 40 tapes is 2,400 minutes on the $24 pack of 5,000. DV video is about 13 GB an hour, so upload the audio rather than the capture; the first 20 minutes are free.
Tape to transcript
A shelf of MiniDV tapes is hours of interviews nobody has heard since they were filmed.
What a DV capture is
Camcorders that recorded to DV and MiniDV tape were captured to a computer over FireWire, producing a raw .dv file, a DV-AVI or a DV-in-MOV. Oral histories, documentary interviews and events from that period are often stored this way.
Thirteen gigabytes an hour
DV video runs at 25 Mbps plus audio, about 13 GB per hour, so even 25 minutes passes 5 GB. A 90-minute long-play tape is close to 20 GB as a capture.
Pulling the audio out
Export the soundtrack with ffmpeg or VLC as MP3, around 58 MB an hour, or WAV if you are archiving. Tapes recorded in 32 kHz four-channel mode may hold a second, empty stereo pair; keep the pair with the speech.
What the tape becomes
A brief, chapters with timestamps, the names, places and dates said, speakers named in the summary and key quotes, and SRT or VTT captions if the footage is going into an edit.
Before and after
Capturing a tape is the slow part. Transcribing it should not be.
✗ Raw captures
Every tape a huge file with nothing searchable in it.
- Thirteen gigabytes per tape hour
- Interviews logged by hand, if at all
- A second audio pair that is silent
- Tape numbers as the only index
- Uploads that stop at 5 GB
- Quotes found only by watching again
✓ One transcript per tape
Audio out, uploaded, and read in minutes.
- An MP3 of each tape, a fraction of the size
- A 60-minute tape ready in about 2 minutes
- Chapters within each tape
- Interviewees named in the key quotes
- Forty tapes on the $24 pack
- SRT to bring back into the edit
Sample
A documentary interview from a MiniDV tape.
Illustrative only: written for this page, not from a real tape or interview.
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
- AI chat over the whole 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
- Summary, chapters and key quotes
- All export formats
- AI chat over the whole transcript
Bulk pack
$24/5,000 min
83 hours of audio — $0.29 an hour. Credits never expire.
- 5,000 minutes of audio
- Summary, chapters and key quotes
- API access for batch pipelines
- All export formats
FAQ
DV capture questions.
How long does one tape take?
About 2 minutes for a 60-minute tape once its audio is uploaded; a 90-minute long-play tape takes about 3. Capturing the tape in real time over FireWire is by far the longest step, so transcribe each tape as soon as its capture finishes.
What does a box of tapes cost?
One 60-minute tape is 60 minutes of the $6 pack of 500, so eight tapes fit that pack. Forty tapes is 2,400 minutes, on the $24 pack of 5,000 with 2,600 left. Credits never expire.
Will the upload take a .dv or DV-AVI file?
The capture is usually far over 5 GB, and the format may not be accepted anyway. If the upload refuses it, or it is too big, convert to MP3 or MP4 with ffmpeg or VLC.
Can I join several tapes into one file?
Yes, as long as the audio stays within 10 hours or 5 GB. Separate files per tape keep the tape numbers meaningful, which most archives prefer.
What if a tape has music or background noise?
Music and sound effects are not transcribed; the speech is. Very quiet speech under loud noise, or a camera microphone far from the speaker, may need a review pass against the footage.
Which exports come back, and is the archive private?
Every tape exports as TXT, DOCX, SRT, VTT or JSON, which suits an archive catalogue as well as an edit. Tape audio is transcribed on our own servers and is never used for training.
Related
Tape-era formats and archives.
Start with the first tape. No charge for the first 20 minutes.
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