Proust is a free and easy to use web application that allows you to get the transcript of any YouTube videos you want. It also lets you export the transcripts as PDFs and Documents.
But first of all, let us briefly discuss what transcripts actually are and what their purpose is. So, a transcript can be simply described as the written script or text of whatever is spoken in the video. Transcripts can be helpful in creating captions in a video. You might have noticed sometimes, when you type some matter from any video on Google or YouTube, you get the desired video. How does it happen? You didn’t even write its title. Transcripts of the video are read by the crawler of the search engine and your results are generated.
So now, let’s get back to our topic. Proust makes it easier for us to generate any YouTube video’s transcript. All you need to do is:
- Open the website.
- Copy the link of the YouTube video you want the transcript of.
- Paste the link in the section of the website and click on Scrape.
And that’s it! In a few seconds, your desired video is transcribed. You can edit it on the website itself and export them as PDFs or Documents.
While YouTube is mostly limited to English transcripts, Proust lets you translate the transcript in any language you want. The website can be used easily on both mobile phones and PC.
Limitations:
Now if I talk about the limitations, there are a few that need to be highlighted:
- Proust can only generate transcripts of the videos that already have one on YouTube.
- As the transcript gets generated in a single paragraph, it might be a bit difficult to understand a multiple person conversation in the video.
- If the transcript is auto-generated by YouTube, some parts of it can be mistaken if the speaker isn’t loud and clear enough in the video.
Well keeping the limitations aside, Proust can be a great tool for extracting any video’s transcript in any language and downloading it in a pdf form. Transcripts can also be very helpful to people who are hearing impaired.
Summary:
To summarize, Proust can be a great tool for those who want to simply extract the transcripts of YouTube videos, edit them and convert and use them in any language they want.
If I talk about my personal experience, there are times when I like to read content rather than listening to it. So, I liked this tool and found it really helpful. Transcripts on YouTube are attached with the time slots and it becomes difficult to extract them. But with Proust it becomes a lot easier.
