Transcribe a long HLS m3u8 stream the event recording, not the playlist.
An .m3u8 file is a text playlist that points to hundreds of short media segments, so uploading it transcribes nothing: paste the stream's YouTube, Vimeo, Twitch or Kick link, or save the stream to one file with ffmpeg first. A 5-hour event then transcribes in about 10 minutes and uses 300 of the $4 pack's 300 minutes.
What HLS really is
HLS chops a stream into small pieces and lists them in a playlist. A transcript needs the pieces joined.
Where m3u8 comes from
HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) is how many live events, webinars, church and conference streams and video platforms deliver video. The .m3u8 you find in a download folder or a browser's developer tools is a few kilobytes of text listing .ts or .m4s segments, often several seconds each.
The link route first
If the stream lives on YouTube (including live replays), Vimeo, Twitch or Kick, paste that page's link here: nothing to download or convert. Twitch, Kick and YouTube Live recordings over 6 hours start once a pack is on the account.
Saving the stream yourself
For a stream you have the right to keep, ffmpeg -i "PLAYLIST_URL" -vn -c:a copy event.m4a (with the playlist address in place of PLAYLIST_URL) saves the audio in one file; drop -vn and use -c copy event.mp4 to keep the video. A folder already holding the playlist and its segments works the same way with the local path. Encrypted or DRM streams cannot be saved this way and should not be. The saved audio fits this box; files over 500 MB continue on the upload page.
Back in minutes
The transcript returns with timestamps, a brief with the thesis and takeaways, chapters, the names, numbers and dates said, and the questions the event answered. Speakers are named in the summary, key quotes and chapters. Exports: TXT, DOCX, SRT, VTT, JSON.
A stream after the event
The livestream ended. What remains is a playlist URL and a lot of segments.
✗ Stuck as segments
A playlist and a folder of fragments do not add up to a recording anyone can upload.
- A .m3u8 with no sound in it
- Hundreds of .ts fragments
- Uploads that see a text file
- A 1080p video of 13 GB or more
- Recap written from memory
- Nobody quoting the keynote
✓ Saved or linked, then transcribed
One audio file or one link, then the whole event as text.
- Audio-only: about 58 MB an hour
- 5 hours in about 10 minutes
- Chapters by session
- Key quotes with timestamps
- SRT and VTT for the replay
- Packs from $4 for 300 minutes
Illustrative transcript
A long live-streamed event saved from its HLS playlist.
Invented for this page; no real event or speaker. Times follow the saved stream from the first segment.
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 $4 (300 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
$4/300 min
5 hours of audio — $0.80 an hour. One-time — credits never expire.
- 300 minutes of audio
- All export formats
- AI chat over the whole transcript
- Executive summary & key quote
Best value
$18/3,000 min
50 hours of audio — $0.36 an hour. Credits never expire.
- 3,000 minutes of audio
- Summary, chapters and key quotes
- All export formats
- AI chat over the whole transcript
Bulk pack
$32/6,000 min
100 hours of audio — $0.32 an hour. Credits never expire.
- 6,000 minutes of audio
- Summary, chapters and key quotes
- API access for batch pipelines
- All export formats
FAQ
Long HLS streams: questions
Can I upload the .m3u8 file?
No: it is a text playlist with no audio in it. Save the stream to an MP4 or M4A with ffmpeg, or paste the YouTube, Vimeo, Twitch or Kick link of the page that plays it. If the upload refuses a saved file, convert it to MP3 or MP4 with ffmpeg or VLC.
How big is a saved stream?
1080p HLS is often 2 to 3.5 GB an hour and 720p around 1 to 2 GB, so a 5-hour event saved as video can be 10 to 17 GB, well past 5 GB. Saved as audio only at 128 kbps, the same 5 hours is about 288 MB.
The playlist offers several qualities.
A master playlist lists variants. ffmpeg picks one automatically; for a transcript any variant works, since the audio is usually the same. Choose the smallest with -map if you only want the sound.
What does a weekly livestream cost?
Packs start at $4 for 300 minutes, and credits never expire. Every recording starts with a free preview of its opening minutes; a longer stream is previewed and a pack transcribes the rest.
The stream ran longer than 10 hours.
One file can be up to 10 hours. Save it in two parts with ffmpeg's -t and -ss options and upload each; see the page on splitting long recordings.
Languages, exports and privacy?
99 languages are detected automatically, and a stream that switches language is detected on its main one. Music and crowd noise are not transcribed; the speech is. Exports: TXT, DOCX, SRT, VTT, JSON. Recordings are transcribed on our own servers and are never used for training.
Related
Related pages
The stream is over. The transcript is one saved file away.
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