Transcribe a Film, Get the Text
Upload a film file, or paste a link, and ScreenApp turns the dialogue into a transcript with speaker labels and timestamps. There is no download step for a URL: paste the link and the tool fetches and transcribes it directly.
You get a transcript you can search and quote instead of scrubbing through a timeline to find a line of dialogue.
What you get:
- A transcript with speaker identification, in 100+ languages
- chapters with timestamps, so a long cut is split by scene
- AI chat with any recording, so you can ask about a scene instead of re-watching it
- Export as PDF, DOCX, TXT, SRT and VTT, ready to use as subtitle source files
- Free plan: 2 transcriptions of recordings up to 45 minutes each, with AI chat on both
How to Transcribe a Film
- Upload your film or paste a link: Drag in a file (MP4, M4V, MOV, AVI, WEBM, MKV, FLV, TS, MTS, M2TS, 3GP, 3GPP, 3G2, WMV, ASF, VOB, OGV, RM, RMVB, MPG, MPEG, M2V, F4V, MXF) from dailies to a final cut, or paste a link from YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and most other public video links (Twitch, Loom, Dropbox, Google Drive, Pinterest, X, Threads, Douyin, Kuaishou, Bilibili) through a generic importer.
- Let it transcribe: The audio is converted to text, speakers are separated, and every line gets a timestamp.
- Review and export: Read the transcript in the browser, edit it if needed, and export as PDF, DOCX, TXT, SRT and VTT to use in your editing software or research.
Accuracy depends on the audio. Clean dialogue with little background score or crowd noise transcribes best; a scene with overlapping voices, heavy music, or a distant boom mic will have more gaps. See how we measure accuracy.
Film Transcription vs Other Apps
| Feature | ScreenApp | Sonix | Rev |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan | 2 transcriptions, up to 45 min each | 30-min trial | 45 min/month (AI) |
| Transcription | Included | Included with the plan, or $10/hour pay as you go | $25.49/mo (AI, billed annually), $1.99/min (human) |
| Speaker identification | Included | Included | Included |
| Export formats | PDF, DOCX, TXT, SRT and VTT | DOCX, PDF, TXT, SRT, VTT | Not stated |
| Languages | 100+ | 54+ | Not stated |
| Paid plan | $19/month annual | $25/month | $25.49/month annual |
Sources, checked 2026-09-28: screenapp.io/accuracy#languages, ScreenApp pricing, sonix.ai/pricing, rev.com/pricing
- vs Sonix: Sonix offers a one-time 30-minute trial, then a $25-a-month plan or $10-an-hour pay-as-you-go. ScreenApp’s free plan renews rather than being a one-time trial.
- vs Rev: Rev’s free tier gives 45 AI minutes a month, then charges $25.49/month (billed annually) per minute for an AI transcript, or $1.99 per minute for a human transcript. ScreenApp’s plans include transcription without a per-minute charge.
Who Uses Film Transcription
Editors use the transcript to log scenes and find a specific line of dialogue without scrubbing through the timeline.
Filmmakers transcribe dailies and rough cuts to keep a written record of what was actually said on set, separate from the script.
Film students and academics search dialogue, study narrative structure, and quote a scene accurately for an essay or a paper.
Media archives and distributors transcribe library titles so the catalog is searchable by line of dialogue, not just by title and synopsis.
Journalists and critics pull an accurate quote from a screening for a review or an article without replaying the whole scene.
Subtitle and localization teams start from the timestamped transcript instead of re-transcribing the film by ear before translating it.