Tag Archives: video

Lab Notes: Transcription with Vibe and Buzz

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By Nelson Garcia

Vibe and Buzz are free audio/video transcription programs. 

Vibe

Vibe is an on-device transcription program that will take an audio file or a video file and convert whatever is spoken in that file into text that you can format in a bunch of different ways.  It is simple to use, and it runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux. It is open source in both the software and the engine that it is using. It uses Open AI Whisper engine to do the transcription. 

Useful features include:

  • It can function offline
  • It will transcribe into over 90 different languages.
  • It has diarization (speaker recognition) and can edit\change speakers.
  • It can be saved in various formats including .txt, .srt., .docx, and .pdf.
  • It can summarize transcripts with llama or Claude (additional steps required)
  • Optimized for GPU (Graphics Processing Unit).
  • It will NOT translate from English to another language, but it can translate into English from over 90 languages.
  • Note: Like other transcription software\programs, it doesn’t handle crosstalk very well.
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GridPlayer: A Free Multi-View Video Playback Tool

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By Nelson Garcia

If you’ve ever needed to play multiple videos at once GridPlayer is an ideal tool. For example, you might want to review footage from several camera angles of the same event.  GridPlayer will let you do that, and it is free and simple to use.

GridPlayer displays videos in a side-by-side layout and supports simultaneous playback. The number of videos you can load depends on your computer’s graphics capabilities and screen size. I’ve successfully played up to eight videos at once.

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Guide: Transcribing with Shotcut

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By Nelson Garcia

Shotcut is a free, open-source, cross-platform video editor for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It supports a wide range of formats and resolutions including 4K. Features include subtitles, timeline editing, multiple tracks, and various effects.[1]

Subtitling in Shotcut is the focus of this post.  Through Shotcut’s subtitling feature, you can create video transcriptions. Shotcut can create, import, edit, export, render, and embed subtitles. Shotcut can also import subtitle formats such as: SRT, VTT, ASS, and SSA.  It can translate from most languages to English, and do Speech to Text subtitling in different languages. To do this it uses Whisper.[2] Shotcut also has a Subtitle burn-in feature, meaning it can embed the subtitles into the video so that they are always visible and permanently a part of the file.

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Guide: VLC Video Clipping and Interactive Zoom

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By Nelson Garcia

You are probably familiar with clicking on this traffic cone icon to play videos in your discovery, but did you know you can use it for more than that? The traffic cone icon is VLC media player[1], a free, open, and cross-source platform media player that clip and zoom in on videos in addition to playing many different types of media files.

This guide will walk you through how to clip videos and how to zoom in on videos step-by-step.

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Lab Notes: TrialDirector and VLC as media players in court

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By Nelson Garcia

Trial Director and VLC Media Player are completely different software programs, but both can play multimedia files. Trial Director is a courtroom presentation program. It has a built-in video and audio player and can also present documents. VLC Player is a video player and can only play videos.

If you are deciding between the two for an upcoming court hearing, here are some factors to consider.

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