Timestamped, speaker-labeled transcripts of your footage, in 326 languages.
Last reviewed August 23, 2026 by the Prism Linguistics editorial team.
Video transcription converts the speech in your footage into a timestamped, speaker-labeled document you can search, quote and file. Prism Linguistics transcribes video in 326 languages with human transcriptionists, quotes within 60 minutes during business hours, and typically returns short projects in one to two business days.
The transcript is what makes a video usable after the camera stops: attorneys cite it, editors cut from it, and search engines can finally read it. We transcribe everything from a 40-minute deposition recorded in Houston to a season of documentary rushes, and if the footage is in another language we translate it too.
Auto-generated transcripts are fine until they matter. Speech recognition still stumbles on accents, crosstalk and specialist terminology, and it cannot reliably tell you who said what. In a marketing video that means a clumsy quote; in a deposition it means an inaccurate record someone may rely on.
Our video transcriptionists listen to the actual footage, attribute every line to a speaker, flag anything genuinely inaudible with a timestamp rather than guessing, and have a second linguist check the transcript against the video before delivery. They are professionally qualified and background-checked, which matters when footage involves minors, patients or evidence.
Any footage with speech in it. These are the categories US clients send most.
Onboarding modules, e-learning, town halls and internal comms, transcribed for records and repurposing. Part of our business language services.
Video depositions, recorded hearings and witness interviews, timestamped for citation. See our legal language services.
Zoom and Teams recordings, panels and keynotes, with each speaker identified so the Q&A makes sense on paper.
Channel archives, video podcasts and interview clips, transcribed so search engines can index the words and your team can mine the quotes.
Rushes and interviews transcribed and timestamped so editors build a paper cut instead of scrubbing footage. See media language services.
Body-cam, interview-room and CCTV audio, handled confidentially by background-checked transcriptionists and timestamped for evidentiary use.
Three deliverables that get ordered interchangeably, and are not interchangeable.
| Transcript | Captions | Subtitles | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A document of everything said, in running order | Timed on-screen text in the same language as the audio | Timed on-screen text translated into another language |
| Where it lives | Word, PDF or text file, read separately from the video | SRT/VTT file or burned into the video player | SRT/VTT file or burned into the video player |
| Built for | Searching, quoting, citing, records | Viewers who are deaf or watching muted | Viewers who speak a different language |
| Sound effects noted | Only if you ask (verbatim style) | Yes, by convention | Not usually |
This page covers transcripts. If the end product is text on screen for viewers, our subtitling and captioning service handles the cueing, condensing and reading-speed work on top of the transcript. Plenty of projects need both; the transcript comes first.
Timestamps let you trace a line of text back to a moment in the footage. By default we place one at every speaker change, counted from the start of the file in hours, minutes and seconds. Editors working to a paper cut usually ask for fixed intervals, often every 30 seconds; legal teams want one wherever something material is said. Both are fine, just say so in the brief.
Speaker identification works the same way. Send a list of names or roles and the transcript carries real attributions instead of Speaker 1 and Speaker 2, the difference between a file you can search in six months and one you have to re-watch. For panels with heavy crosstalk, that attribution work is exactly where automated tools fall apart.
Foreign-language footage takes two distinct skills: a native speaker writes down what was said, and only then can it be translated. We staff both stages from 326 languages, so you can order the original-language transcript, an English translation, or both with matching timestamps.
Keeping both stages under one roof means the timestamps in the translation still line up with the source footage, which is exactly what an attorney proving the wording of a Spanish-language interview needs. Translated transcripts can also be certified through our document translation service when a court or agency needs to rely on them.
And if the recording has no picture at all, interviews, focus groups, dictation, that is our audio transcription service, which works the same way minus the video.
If your video faces the public, accessibility is usually part of why the transcript gets ordered. US courts and regulators have read the Americans with Disabilities Act to reach digital content in many contexts, and Section 508 requires federal agencies, and in practice many federally funded universities and programs, to make video accessible. The benchmark both point to is WCAG, which expects synchronized captions for prerecorded video, with a text transcript as a strong companion resource.
In practical terms, the transcript is the foundation: it serves users who prefer reading, feeds screen readers and site search, and is the source file your caption track gets built from. We are linguists rather than compliance attorneys, so treat this as orientation, not legal advice.
Four steps. The more you tell us at step one, the tighter the quote.
Upload files through our quote form or share a private YouTube, Vimeo, Dropbox or Google Drive link, with the runtime, the language spoken and your deadline. MP4, MOV, AVI and most other formats are fine.
We agree timestamps, speaker IDs, verbatim or clean style and any translation, then send a fixed written quote, within 60 minutes during business hours.
A human transcriptionist works through the footage and a second linguist checks the transcript against the video before it goes out. Anything genuinely inaudible is flagged with a timestamp, never guessed.
Delivery in Word, PDF or plain text, timestamped and speaker-labeled, with revisions if anything needs adjusting.
A rough planning figure: transcribing one hour of clear, single-speaker video takes a professional four to six working hours, so a short project with clean audio usually comes back in one to two business days. Multi-speaker panels, location sound and foreign-language footage take longer, and translation adds a stage.
Rush delivery is often possible for shorter files, subject to capacity, and our intake runs 24/7 so a Friday-evening upload is not stuck until Monday. We confirm a realistic date with the quote rather than promise one we would miss, so tell us your filing or publication deadline up front.
Human video transcription in the US market is normally priced per video minute; as a guide, clear English footage typically runs from around $1.50 to $3.00 per video minute. Strict-verbatim legal work, heavy crosstalk and foreign-language transcription sit above that range, sometimes well above it for rare languages. Automated services cost far less and deliver accordingly.
What moves the number: runtime, audio clarity, the number of speakers, timestamping detail, the language, and the deadline. Two hours of footage can mean two very different amounts of work — a lapel-mic interview is nothing like a six-person panel recorded on a phone. Those figures are market orientation, not a rate card; your written quote confirms the exact price.
The questions US clients ask before sending footage.
Send a file or a private link and tell us the runtime. A fixed written quote comes back within 60 minutes during business hours.
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