Transcribe a long Xvid AVI file archived lectures and tapes, made searchable.
A 3-hour Xvid AVI transcribes in about 6 minutes and uses 180 minutes of the $6 pack (500 minutes); the first 20 minutes are free. Xvid files are compact, often 400 to 500 MB an hour, so that seminar is about 1.35 GB: under the 2 GB that uploads before a first pack, and within the 10 hours or 5 GB a file can be.
Xvid, then and now
Xvid filled hard drives in the 2000s. Many of those files hold talks nobody has read since.
Where Xvid AVIs come from
Xvid is an open-source MPEG-4 video codec that was the default in a lot of capture and conversion software for years. Digitised VHS and camcorder tapes, recorded lectures, old screen captures and TV captures from that era often sit on drives as Xvid inside an AVI, usually with MP3 or AC3 sound.
Upload as it is, or not
Many AVI files upload without any change. The file picker on this page lists audio and MP4 or WebM, so if it hides your AVI, choose all files, or use the upload page, which also takes anything over the 500 MB this box allows. If the upload refuses the file, convert to MP3 or MP4 with ffmpeg or VLC.
The quick extraction
When the sound inside is MP3, ffmpeg can copy it out without re-encoding: ffmpeg -i seminar.avi -vn -c:a copy seminar.mp3 takes seconds and loses nothing. If the track is AC3 or PCM instead, re-encode it with -c:a libmp3lame -b:a 128k. Three hours at 128 kbps is about 173 MB.
What you get back
A transcript with timestamps, a brief with the thesis and takeaways, chapters, the names, dates and numbers mentioned, and a chat to ask the recording questions. Speakers are named in the summary, key quotes and chapters, and exports cover TXT, DOCX, SRT, VTT and JSON.
An archive of AVIs
A shelf of digitised tapes is preserved, but nobody can search it.
✗ Saved but silent
The files survived the old computer; what is said in them is still locked inside.
- File names like CAPTURE_0043.avi
- No idea which tape holds which talk
- Players that struggle with old codecs
- Hours of playback to catalogue
- Captures split into parts
- Nothing to quote from
✓ Transcribed
Each file gets text, chapters and a summary you can search.
- 3 hours in about 6 minutes
- Chapters to catalogue each tape
- Names and dates pulled out
- DOCX for the archive record
- SRT to caption a re-release
- 80 hours fits the $24 pack
Illustrative transcript
A seminar digitised from tape and saved as Xvid AVI.
Invented for this page; no real seminar or speaker. Times follow the AVI from start to finish.
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
Long Xvid AVI: questions
Will the upload take an Xvid AVI?
Often, yes. If the page's picker hides it, choose all files or use the main upload page; if the upload refuses the file, copy or convert the sound to MP3 with ffmpeg, or convert the whole file to MP4 with VLC.
How big is an hour of Xvid?
Xvid was tuned to fit a film on a CD, so many files are 400 to 500 MB an hour; higher quality captures can reach 1 to 1.5 GB an hour. A 3-hour file at 450 MB an hour is about 1.35 GB.
My capture is split into several AVIs.
Older capture software often stopped files near 2 GB and started a new one. Each part can be uploaded on its own, or joined first so one transcript covers the whole tape; the minutes are the same either way.
What does digitising an archive cost?
Forty tapes of 2 hours each are 80 hours, or 4,800 minutes, which fits the $24 pack of 5,000 minutes with 200 left. One 3-hour seminar is 180 minutes of the $6 pack. A first-time visitor's first 20 minutes are free, and a longer recording is previewed before a pack transcribes the rest.
The sound on the old tape is poor.
Hiss and hum are tolerated, and music or background noise is not transcribed; the speech is. Badly worn audio gives a rougher draft, so plan a read-through for the passages you will quote.
Languages, exports and privacy?
99 languages are detected automatically. Exports: TXT, DOCX, SRT, VTT and JSON. Recordings are transcribed on our own servers and are never used for training.
Related
Related pages
A drive full of Xvid AVIs. Every talk on it, searchable.
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