
Show HN: Podscripter – Automated Transcription for Podcasters - craigcannon
https://www.podscripter.co/?ref=hn
======
craigcannon
Hey HN!

Craig from YC here. This project is a follow-up to SpeechBoard, which was a
text-based audio editor -
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15670827](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15670827).
Thanks for all the feedback there :)

We were surprised to find that many users just wanted transcripts, so
Podscripter is an attempt to solve that.

Here's how it works: every time you publish an episode (or give us a file) we
run it through a speech to text service. Then we split up the speakers by
hand, which ends up being a fair bit of work and is why it's 24hrs instead of
minutes . Then we email you the transcript.

Before I was podcasting at YC I had my own podcast and couldn't justify paying
$1 a minute for transcripts. These machine generated transcripts get you most
of the way there for a lot less money :)

Let me know what you think!

~~~
jtbayly
For $10, I'd expect above 99% accuracy, especially since I can get an
automated transcript for $5 for 60 minutes that presumably has a similar error
rate to what you are offering.

Also, I'd expect it sooner than 24 hours, since I can get automated ones back
in under an hour.

Not trying to be cold water. I _am_ actually interested, but what sets you
apart from the other cheaper automated solutions? Am I wrong about the error
rate I can expect elsewhere?

~~~
ghaff
By way of context, human transcriptions cost about $1 to $1.50 per [EDIT:
minute] --which is what I use for my podcasts. Accuracy is extremely good,
especially if you flag obscure terms when you submit.

~~~
mindwork
For a podcasts with good audio quality(which is usually a case for podcasts)
you probably can use speech recognition tools that will cost you a fraction of
this price. They are pretty good nowdays

~~~
seanwilson
Is there a way you can record then edit a podcast but keep track of which
microphone different voices are coming from? Seems like you could make speaker
identification easier that way?

~~~
craigcannon
Yeah, if you record on multiple tracks it's pretty easy but podcasting setups
vary a ton.

------
wenbin
Great project!

My podcast search engine project Listen Notes (
[https://www.listennotes.com/](https://www.listennotes.com/) ) does
transcription as well.

It's not as accurate as Podscripter, but good enough for in-audio search.
Example:
[https://www.listennotes.com/e/1dae4f4c2c0d4202a1180bd9c9f17d...](https://www.listennotes.com/e/1dae4f4c2c0d4202a1180bd9c9f17d5a/121-chamath-
palihapitiya-chamath-on-facebook-aim-and-winamp/)

Website visitors can request to transcribe episodes on Listen Notes websites.

~~~
craigcannon
Listen Notes is awesome. Just found out about it recently.

------
tomkinson
To drum up business you should just do all the Joe Rogan podcasts for free.

~~~
nibbleshift
FluidDATA has the Joe Rogan podcasts for free at
[https://fluiddata.com/search?channel_id=9853](https://fluiddata.com/search?channel_id=9853)

Not to mention, FluidDATA has transcribed over 8.2 million podcast episodes
from over 230,000 podcast feeds.

~~~
jtbayly
I can't find a single transcript at that website, though it's a cool service,
kind of like Google for searching within audio (Podcasts).

~~~
nibbleshift
FluidDATA definitely has a different model than PodScript.

FluidDATA doesn't expose the entire transcript. It currently only exposes the
ability to search the transcripts of millions of podcasts.

For example, you can find podcasts that talk about SpeechBoard and Craig by
searching: "speech board" \+ "craig canon"

[https://fluiddata.com/search?term=%22speech%20board%22%20%2B...](https://fluiddata.com/search?term=%22speech%20board%22%20%2B%20%22craig%20canon%22)

------
pascalxus
I really would love something like this: to transcribe chinese podcasts into
pinyin and characters. this would really help me learn the language better, as
listening skills are the hardest to learn when learning a foreign language.

~~~
rfreytag
Wouldn't you be concerned about transcription errors interfering with your
learning?

A lot of movies have Chinese subtitles. Pick an action movie and the dialog is
quite easy.

------
CharlesW
What distinguishes it from popular competitors like Trint, Temi, etc. who also
do speaker identification?

~~~
craigcannon
We're hoping to provide better speaker detection and an easy workflow for
podcasters.

------
JasonFruit
This brings up a point that has long puzzled me: why is it so uncommon for
podcasters to write out what they intend to say? It seems like it would
eliminate a lot of the misspeech, circumlocution, and unclearness that make
podcasts so frustrating to listen to for me. It would also eliminate the need
for transcription after the fact.

~~~
ghaff
That might make sense for one person basically reading a script. (Which, with
a few exceptions, aren't a very good format.)

But most podcasts are interviews/conversations. You're not going to get most
podcast guests to write out full responses in advance.

I do usually review topics and some potential questions for a few minutes with
my guest before we get started and do editing if a question or answer goes off
the rails or there's an error. I also do some light editing to cut down on
umms, you knows, etc. But a lot of casual podcasts created as sidelines
wouldn't make sense if they were going to take a week to put together.

------
superflyguy
I've never listened to a podcast but does this work on YouTube and Ted talks?

~~~
CharlesW
TED talks and YouTube videos already have closed captions/subtitles.

~~~
bmelton
YouTube captioning tends to range from bad to horrible. TED talks are probably
hand-transcribed, as I remember them as being higher quality.

~~~
CharlesW
> _YouTube captioning tends to range from bad to horrible._

Yes, and I mentioned YouTube specifically because it's representative of the
best machine transcription (which this service is) can offer.

TED talks are indeed transcribed by professionals, and so the quality is a
magnitude better than what this service can provide. TEDx talks are
transcribed by volunteers, so their quality is more variable.[1]

[1]
[https://www.ted.com/participate/translate/transcribe](https://www.ted.com/participate/translate/transcribe)

