
Show HN: VidDistill – Automated YouTube Video Summarization Using Captions - rkindi
https://vid-distill.herokuapp.com
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Gys
You could add some sample output for some sample video, to give an idea what
to expect.

Now I have to think and find some video link myself, only for testing. Which I
am too lazy for, so I just skip that and might then forget about your great
idea ;-)

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rkindi
That's a really good point. I'll update the site to have a default video in
the text field so that you can have a quick and easy way to test the site
without thinking about a video you want to try.

In the meantime, I've compiled some URLs that you can paste into the text
field!

Where's Google going next? | Larry Page
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mArrNRWQEso](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mArrNRWQEso)

The surprising habits of original thinkers | Adam Grant
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxbCHn6gE3U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxbCHn6gE3U)

The Art of Letting Go | The Minimalists | TEDxFargo
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7rewjFNiys](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7rewjFNiys)

Thanks for the feedback!

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HCharles
Hey - I tried it with this
([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhVQf2ucKhs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhVQf2ucKhs))
at the default percentage and it just seems to pull, what appear to be, a few
words from the video. What should the expectations be?

Overall it's a great idea if it can generate a useful/consumable summary.

~~~
rkindi
Hey, thanks for trying the app out!

The reason the link you provided isn't working is because there aren't English
automated or manual captions for the video.
[https://imgur.com/a/aNNvS](https://imgur.com/a/aNNvS) I'll try and clarify
this in the about section as soon as I can.

I recommend trying it out with some of your favorite TED talks that have
manual or automated captions in English. With some of the ones I've tried,
with the default length reduction setting, I usually get a <= 5-minute output
from a ~ 20-minute video.

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rkindi
Hi everyone! I just wanted to leave a comment saying that if you're curious
about how the service works, I've included an about page: [https://vid-
distill.herokuapp.com/about.html](https://vid-
distill.herokuapp.com/about.html)

Furthermore, you can check out the code on my GitHub:
[https://github.com/rkindi/vidDistill](https://github.com/rkindi/vidDistill)

Unfortunately, this is the first time I've ever tried to deploy something to
Heroku, so I must admit, the quality of my code could be better. I appreciate
any feedback I can get!

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alerter
This is very interesting and, as someone currently working in political
reporting/summarising, also terrifying!

Good thing I can code.

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stephensonsco
Coolest A/V project I've seen in a while! You can bump up the playback speed
in the youtube player to compress temporally even more.

Definitely put in a "Click Here to Try A Sample Video" as others suggested.

~~~
rkindi
Thank you! I appreciate the kind words.

Another big thing I've put on my todo list (in addition to a "Click Here to
Try A Sample Video" button) is a section where you can rate the quality of the
summarization out of 5 stars. That way I can go back and identify the videos
that don't work well with the service and see what I can do to improve the
quality of those summarizations.

Update: Done (with one item on that todo list)! I've added a 'Random' button
that loads in a random URL (from the small set of 3 TED talks I posted
elsewhere in this thread) so that it's easier to test the app out quickly.

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jvictor118
Nailed it, at least for the video I watched. Rahimi's NIPS Test of Time Award
was swiftly condensed into a few minutes of magic, with all the other side-
commentary swept away. Amazing work! Any details on how you did it?

~~~
manojlds
Code is here -
[https://github.com/rkindi/vidDistill](https://github.com/rkindi/vidDistill)

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mikewhy
I feel like I'm missing something. I can't figure out what the use of
something like this is:
[https://i.imgur.com/7kJCn8u.png](https://i.imgur.com/7kJCn8u.png)

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mapster
nice work! fyi I made a YT video summary to PDF tool years ago. I made it to
create print outs of 'how to' and exercise videos that have many steps.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-7JCg5fGho](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-7JCg5fGho)

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nwsm
So basically it's just smmry.com but feeds it from youtube captions

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tomyws
In the demo you can playback the video segments as a playlist. It worked well
with some of the TED talks I tried.

