Transcribe a long TOD file early HD camcorder footage, read as text.
A long TOD file is transcribed at about 2 minutes per audio hour, so a 3-hour recording comes back in roughly 6 minutes and uses 180 minutes of the $6 pack of 500. TOD video runs about 12 GB an hour, past the 5 GB ceiling in under half an hour, so extract the audio first; the first 20 minutes are free.
TOD in practice
The first HD camcorders recorded beautiful, enormous files.
What a TOD is
Some of the first hard-drive camcorders to record in 1080i saved video as .TOD files, an MPEG-2 transport stream, usually next to .MOI files in an SD_VIDEO folder. Weddings, graduations and talks from the late 2000s often survive only like this.
Why it will not go up whole
At around 26 to 30 Mbps, an hour of TOD is about 12 GB. Even 25 minutes is near the 5 GB per-file ceiling, and a long event spread over several TOD files is far past it.
Taking the audio
Use ffmpeg or VLC to write the soundtrack as MP3 or M4A; renaming to .m2t or .mpg helps some tools recognise the file. Join several TODs of one event first so the transcript keeps one timeline. If the upload refuses a converted MP4, use MP3.
Back as an organised record
Chapters with timestamps at each speech or segment, a brief, the names, numbers and dates spoken, speakers named in the summary, and SRT or VTT captions for the original footage.
Before and after
Twelve gigabytes an hour, for what amounts to a conversation.
✗ The TOD as it is
HD footage from an early camcorder resists every upload.
- About 12 GB for every hour
- Past 5 GB before the first speech ends
- A format many apps no longer open
- Several files for one event
- Picture data you do not need for text
- No transcript, so nobody revisits it
✓ Its audio as MP3
Extract once and the event fits in a small file.
- About 58 MB per hour of speech
- Three hours ready in about 6 minutes
- Joined files on one clock
- 180 minutes of the $6 pack
- Chapters at every speech
- Captions to put back on the HD video
Sample
A ceremony filmed on an early HD camcorder.
Illustrative only; written for this page and not taken from real footage.
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
TOD file questions.
How long does a 3-hour TOD recording take?
About 6 minutes once its audio is uploaded. Extracting the audio is usually the longer step, and it depends more on the speed of the disk the footage sits on than on the length of the event.
What will it cost?
Three hours is 180 minutes of the $6 pack of 500. An archive of 50 hours of TOD footage is 3,000 minutes, on the $24 pack of 5,000. Credits never expire.
Can I upload the TOD file itself?
Only a short one fits under 5 GB, and the upload may not recognise the format. If it is refused, convert to MP3 or MP4 with ffmpeg or VLC. For speech, MP3 is the smaller and safer choice, and the original TOD stays untouched on your drive.
The event is spread over six TOD files. What do I do?
Join them in order and export one audio file, or extract each one's audio and upload them in sequence. One joined file keeps the timestamps continuous.
What if the audio is longer than 10 hours?
Make two files, split at a pause, and upload both. Before your first pack, each upload can be up to 2 GB, which as MP3 is many hours.
What exports come back, and who sees the footage?
TXT and DOCX for reading, SRT and VTT for captions, JSON for anything you build on top. Event audio is transcribed on our own servers and is never used for training.
Related
Related formats and guides.
Extract the sound, then upload. Your first 20 minutes are free.
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