Transcribe a long M4V file from first frame to last.
A four-hour M4V transcribes as one file as long as it stays under 10 hours and 5 GB, and the text is back about eight minutes after the upload ends. The first 20 minutes are free, and the $6 pack (500 minutes) covers all four hours with 260 minutes left over. At 1080p an M4V often runs 1 to 2 GB an hour, so the size line can arrive before the time line does.
Apple video, hours long
What decides whether a long M4V goes up as it is.
Where M4V files come from
M4V is Apple's variant of the MP4 container. HandBrake conversions, older iMovie exports and some lecture capture tools save in it, and inside sits the same kind of H.264 or HEVC video with AAC sound that an MP4 holds. Only the sound track is read for the transcript.
Size per hour, and the 5 GB line
At 1080p an M4V usually lands between 1 and 2 GB per hour. 720p roughly halves that and 4K can double it. A four-hour 1080p export may therefore weigh anywhere from 4 to 8 GB, which is why the gigabyte limit is the one to check first.
When the upload refuses it
Some browser file pickers do not list .m4v as a video type. Larger files go from the upload page, and if the upload refuses the file, convert it to MP3 first. An audio-only MP3 of four hours at 128 kbps is about 230 MB, and the words in the transcript come out the same.
Eight minutes for four hours
Processing runs near 2 minutes per audio hour. On the public proof page a 4.94-hour recording finished in 372 seconds, which is the pace to expect for an M4V of similar length once it has arrived.
Elsewhere and here
Why long M4V exports stall in other tools.
✗ Treated as a stranger
Plenty of transcription tools list MP4 and MOV but not M4V, and the ones that do accept it often stop well short of a full lecture or event.
- The file picker greys out the .m4v
- A length cap cuts the video at the first hour
- A multi-gigabyte upload fails near the end
- Re-encoding advice that costs an afternoon
- A separate transcript for every part
- Timestamps that restart at each split
✓ Read for its sound
Here the M4V is opened for its audio track, and the running time, not the picture size, sets the price.
- One file up to 10 hours or 5 GB
- An MP3 fallback that keeps every word
- About 2 minutes per hour of audio
- One clock from start to finish
- Chapters you can jump between
- Credits that never expire
Sample output
Three hours into a recorded workshop.
This excerpt is illustrative, not taken from a real M4V. A long workshop export comes back with its timestamps counting from the first second of the file.
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 M4V files, answered.
How long does a four-hour M4V take to transcribe?
About eight minutes once the file is uploaded, at roughly 2 minutes per hour of audio. Sending a multi-gigabyte M4V over a home connection can take longer than the transcription itself, which is the main reason to consider an audio-only copy.
What does a long M4V cost?
Only the running time counts. Four hours is 240 minutes, inside the $6 pack (500 minutes) with 260 to spare. A nine-hour M4V is 540 minutes and belongs on the $12 pack (2,000 minutes), which leaves 1,460. Your first 20 minutes are free.
My M4V is over 5 GB. What now?
Export the audio only, which takes hours of video down to a few hundred megabytes, or paste a link if the same video sits on YouTube, Vimeo or Google Drive. Any file above 2 GB begins once a pack is on the account.
What if the video runs past 10 hours?
Cut it into two files at a pause and upload both. The second transcript starts its clock at zero, so add the first part's length when you cite a time from it.
Will a movie or episode bought from Apple work?
Not if it carries Apple's copy protection, because no outside tool can open its sound track. Video you recorded, exported or converted yourself has no such lock and transcribes normally.
Which languages and exports are there, and where does the file go?
Speech in 99 languages is detected without a setting, and the transcript exports to TXT, DOCX, SRT, VTT and JSON. Your M4V is transcribed on our own servers and is never used for training.
Related
Other long video formats.
Four hours of M4V. About eight minutes of waiting.
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