Best online transcription service?
March 11, 2010 6:10 AM Subscribe
Recommendations for an online audio transcription service?
I have about 40 minutes of single-speaker audio with some scientific terminology to transcribe, and I'd like someone else to do it! I don't have this need very often, so setting up an Amazon Mechanical Turk account seems unnecessary. I've seen one Mefier mention castingwords, which uses Mechanical Turk. Cogi reportedly combines automated transcription with human review in order to lower the cost, but I can't find any indication of whether their transcripts are accurate. And now that Google automatically transcribes voice mail and YouTube videos, I wonder if they have something?
I have about 40 minutes of single-speaker audio with some scientific terminology to transcribe, and I'd like someone else to do it! I don't have this need very often, so setting up an Amazon Mechanical Turk account seems unnecessary. I've seen one Mefier mention castingwords, which uses Mechanical Turk. Cogi reportedly combines automated transcription with human review in order to lower the cost, but I can't find any indication of whether their transcripts are accurate. And now that Google automatically transcribes voice mail and YouTube videos, I wonder if they have something?
Profhacker.com had an article on best transcription services in the past 2 weeks. On my phone, so can't link.
posted by k8t at 7:48 AM on March 11, 2010
posted by k8t at 7:48 AM on March 11, 2010
Cogi reportedly combines automated transcription with human review in order to lower the cost, but I can't find any indication of whether their transcripts are accurate.
In general services that have "automated transcription with human review" tend to actually be human transcription with automated tools that help them work faster. With current technology, you're not going to get anything close to accurate transcripts without a human listening to the whole thing and making sure it's correct.
And now that Google automatically transcribes voice mail and YouTube videos, I wonder if they have something?
The Google transcription service that is used in Google Voice is 100% automated, but it gets a lot of words wrong, so if you want quality transcripts from that someone is going to have to go through and correct all of the mistakes.
posted by burnmp3s at 8:18 AM on March 11, 2010
In general services that have "automated transcription with human review" tend to actually be human transcription with automated tools that help them work faster. With current technology, you're not going to get anything close to accurate transcripts without a human listening to the whole thing and making sure it's correct.
And now that Google automatically transcribes voice mail and YouTube videos, I wonder if they have something?
The Google transcription service that is used in Google Voice is 100% automated, but it gets a lot of words wrong, so if you want quality transcripts from that someone is going to have to go through and correct all of the mistakes.
posted by burnmp3s at 8:18 AM on March 11, 2010
http://www.profhacker.com/2010/03/03/using-speech-recognition-software/
posted by k8t at 8:27 AM on March 11, 2010
posted by k8t at 8:27 AM on March 11, 2010
I'm a transcriber in my spare time. I can't imagine that any automated service would do what you need, especially if there is scientific terminology. I'm in the UK, I think the agencies I work for charge around 90pence per audio minute to the client, so in US money that would be around $1.50 I guess? All in all, expensive I know, but the only way you are going to get a mistake free transcription (of course you could get an automated one and proof yourself)
posted by nunoidia at 10:52 AM on March 11, 2010
posted by nunoidia at 10:52 AM on March 11, 2010
I did a lot of lecture transcribing in medical school. This was over 20 years ago, so the audio was on cassette tapes. I used a foot switch from Radio Shack to control the tape player, so my hands never had to leave the keyboard. I could bang out a 50 minute lecture in 60-75 minutes. YMMV.
posted by neuron at 11:19 AM on March 11, 2010
posted by neuron at 11:19 AM on March 11, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
You really do get what you pay for, so if you want an accurate transcript, you're going to have to pay someone to do it.
posted by stenoboy at 6:22 AM on March 11, 2010 [1 favorite]