How to transcribe a Vimeo video with a third party tool

Vimeo is an increasingly popular alternative to YouTube. Thanks to its superior video and audio levels plus excellent encoding, Vimeo is often considered to be the higher quality option. However, this doesn’t mean that your Vimeo videos won’t benefit from closed captions or subtitles. Here’s all you need to know about transcribing your Vimeo video with a third party platform.

Can Vimeo transcribe my video?

Yes, Vimeo can provide automatic captions and subtitles for accounts on paid subscription plans. While this can be useful, unfortunately, these automatically generated captions are not always of the highest quality. So, you may need to spend a considerable amount of time rewriting your video’s subtitles. Alternatively, you could create an account with a third-party transcription tool.

What is a third party transcription tool?

Third party transcription tools are specialised platforms that provide highly accurate transcripts of audio or video content. They are completely separate from the platform that hosts your video, although some provide application integrations with the big video hosting platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo.

Some transcription services rely exclusively upon AI, whereas others also provide video transcripts and subtitles that are written by professional human transcriptionists. While most auto generated audio to text software is around 80-90% accurate, human generated transcripts are the gold standard and come out with around 99% accuracy levels.

How to upload a video transcription to Vimeo

So now that you know that a third party transcription service, such as Happy Scribe, will give you the best quality captions and subtitles, how do you go about incorporating your audio transcript files into your Vimeo video? Here’s our step-by-step guide to uploading your video transcript to Vimeo.

Step 1: Sign Up With a Transcription Service

Create an account with your preferred online service. You can currently benefit from a free trial with our favourite transcription service Happy Scribe, plus there’s no subscription fees, you simply pay for what you need.

Step 2: Order Your Transcription

Upload your video recording file to your transcription platform. They should have a file uploader that will allow you to easily upload your files from your device or the cloud. Select which type of transcription service you would like to use: human generated or automatic.

Step 3: Download Your Transcription

Machine generated video subtitles and custom captions will normally be ready in just a few minutes. Alternatively, human-generated transcript files can take some time, usually around 24 hours. Once your transcription is ready on the transcription website, you should be able to choose the file type for export that is best suited to your video platform. Vimeo supports most formats including SRT, but they recommend using WebVTT when possible.

Don't forget to review your transcript download before you upload it. Most transcription services come with a subtitle text editor that you can use for free on their website.

Step 4: Upload Your Transcription to Vimeo

It is really easy to add subtitle or caption files to your Vimeo videos. Simply login to the Vimeo website and select the video that you want to add your custom closed captions to. Click on the CC button to open the transcript menu. From there you will be able to click on settings, where you can access the video upload option. Choose your transcript and upload it to your video on Vimeo.

Tips for improving your video transcription quality

Using a specialised transcription service is the best way to improve the accuracy of your Vimeo video captions. However, there are a couple of factors that you can control while making your videos that will have a large impact upon your transcript quality.

Keep Background Noise to a Minimum

Background noise can play havoc with your transcription quality. Make sure that you record in a quiet setting with a minimum of noise. If you have some previous recordings that could be clearer, you may want to make use of an editor to remove background noise from your Vimeo videos.

Test Before You Record

It’s a simple step but highly effective! Make sure that you test your set up before you start your presentation. Click on record and film a test recording for a few minutes. Play back and review to make sure that your audio is first-rate. You should do this before starting each and every new video.

Avoid Interruptions

If you are recording a video with another person or several people, make sure that interruptions are kept to a minimum. When you speak over one another it becomes incredibly difficult to get an accurate transcription, plus your audience will also struggle to understand what is being said. Everyone should know when they are due to speak and take it in turns with a clear pause between speakers.

Invest in a Good Quality Microphone

While they can be expensive, if you want to produce the best quality videos, you’ll need to use a professional microphone. This will make your speech much clearer so your recordings will sound better and they will also be easier to transcribe more accurately.

Use a Human Transcription Service

Most of the time, software just isn’t a match for human transcription. If you have a very important video or are just a stickler for quality, then you should consider using Happy Scribe’s human generated transcripts for Vimeo. Even if your audio and video quality isn’t the very best, a team of professional transcriptionists will be much more accurate than an AI generated version.

Transcribing your Vimeo video

It is important to transcribe your Vimeo videos to improve accessibility, your audience’s understanding, and to help more people to discover your content. Third party transcription services are much more accurate than auto-generated closed captions. What’s more, they also have a wealth of extra features that you can take advantage of to improve your workflow and plan your future video content.