YouTube: How to extract closed caption transcript from YouTube video?
Here's how to get the transcript of a YouTube video (when available):
- Go to YouTube and open the video of your choice.
- Click on the "More actions" button (3 horizontal dots) located next to the Share button.
- Click "Open transcript"
Although the syntax may be a little goofy this is a pretty good solution.
Source: http://ccm.net/faq/40644-youtube-how-to-get-the-transcript-of-a-video
Another option is to use youtube-dl:
youtube-dl --skip-download --write-auto-sub $youtube_url
The default format is vtt and the other available format is ttml (--sub-format ttml).
--write-sub
Write subtitle file
--write-auto-sub
Write automatically generated subtitle file (YouTube only)
--all-subs
Download all the available subtitles of the video
--list-subs
List all available subtitles for the video
--sub-format FORMAT
Subtitle format, accepts formats preference, for example: "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
--sub-lang LANGS
Languages of the subtitles to download (optional) separated by commas, use --list-subs for available language tags
You can use ffmpeg to convert the subtitle file to another format:
ffmpeg -i input.vtt output.srt
In the VTT subtitles, each subtitle text is repeated three times, and there is a new subtitle text every eighth line:
WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en
00:00:01.429 --> 00:00:04.249 align:start position:0%
ladies<00:00:02.429><c> and</c><00:00:02.580><c> gentlemen</c><c.colorE5E5E5><00:00:02.879><c> I'd</c></c><c.colorCCCCCC><00:00:03.870><c> like</c></c><c.colorE5E5E5><00:00:04.020><c> to</c><00:00:04.110><c> thank</c></c>
00:00:04.249 --> 00:00:04.259 align:start position:0%
ladies and gentlemen<c.colorE5E5E5> I'd</c><c.colorCCCCCC> like</c><c.colorE5E5E5> to thank
</c>
00:00:04.259 --> 00:00:05.930 align:start position:0%
ladies and gentlemen<c.colorE5E5E5> I'd</c><c.colorCCCCCC> like</c><c.colorE5E5E5> to thank
you<00:00:04.440><c> for</c><00:00:04.620><c> coming</c><00:00:05.069><c> tonight</c><00:00:05.190><c> especially</c></c><c.colorCCCCCC><00:00:05.609><c> at</c></c>
00:00:05.930 --> 00:00:05.940 align:start position:0%
you<c.colorE5E5E5> for coming tonight especially</c><c.colorCCCCCC> at
</c>
00:00:05.940 --> 00:00:07.730 align:start position:0%
you<c.colorE5E5E5> for coming tonight especially</c><c.colorCCCCCC> at
such<00:00:06.180><c> short</c><00:00:06.690><c> notice</c></c>
00:00:07.730 --> 00:00:07.740 align:start position:0%
such short notice
00:00:07.740 --> 00:00:09.620 align:start position:0%
such short notice
I'm<00:00:08.370><c> sure</c><c.colorE5E5E5><00:00:08.580><c> mr.</c><00:00:08.820><c> Irving</c><00:00:09.000><c> will</c><00:00:09.120><c> fill</c><00:00:09.300><c> you</c><00:00:09.389><c> in</c><00:00:09.420><c> on</c></c>
00:00:09.620 --> 00:00:09.630 align:start position:0%
I'm sure<c.colorE5E5E5> mr. Irving will fill you in on
</c>
00:00:09.630 --> 00:00:11.030 align:start position:0%
I'm sure<c.colorE5E5E5> mr. Irving will fill you in on
the<00:00:09.750><c> circumstances</c><00:00:10.440><c> that's</c><00:00:10.620><c> brought</c><00:00:10.920><c> us</c></c>
00:00:11.030 --> 00:00:11.040 align:start position:0%
<c.colorE5E5E5>the circumstances that's brought us
</c>
This converts the VTT subtitles to a simpler format:
sed '1,/^$/d' *.vtt| # remove the lines at the top of the file
sed 's/<[^>]*>//g'| # remove tags
awk -F. 'NR%4==1{printf"%s ",$1}NR%4==3' | # print each new subtitle text and its start time without milliseconds
awk NF\>1 # remove lines with only one field
Output:
00:00:01 ladies and gentlemen I'd like to thank
00:00:04 you for coming tonight especially at
00:00:05 such short notice
00:00:07 I'm sure mr. Irving will fill you in on
00:00:09 the circumstances that's brought us
In maybe around 10% of videos that I tested with (like for example p9M3shEU-QM and aE05_REXnBc), there is sometimes a subtitle text which comes 12 and not 8 lines after the previous text. My workaround is to print every fourth line but to then remove empty lines that have only one field.
Here's a function which accepts as an argument the ID or URL of one or more videos, playlists, or channels:
cap()(printf %s\\n "${@-$(cat)}"|parallel -j10 -q youtube-dl -i --skip-download --write-auto-sub -o '%(upload_date)s.%(title)s.%(uploader)s.%(id)s.%(ext)s' --;for f in *.vtt;do sed '1,/^$/d' -- "$f"|sed 's/<[^>]*>//g'|awk -F. 'NR%4==1{printf"%s ",$1}NR%4==3'|awk NF\>1>"${f%.vtt}";rm -- "$f";done)
If you use the function above to download all videos on a channel or playlist, the -i (--ignore-errors) option is sometimes needed, because it causes youtube-dl to not exit with an error when there is an error downloading a single video.
You can view/copy/download a timecoded xml file of a youtube's closed captions file by accessing
http://video.google.com/timedtext?lang=[LANGUAGE]&v=[YOUTUBE VIDEO IDENTIFIER]
For example http://video.google.com/timedtext?lang=pt&v=WSVKbw7LC2w
NOTE: this method does not download autogenerated closed captions, even if you get the language right (maybe there's a special code for autogenerated languages).
Following document says only the owner of the channel can do this via standard youtube interface: https://developers.google.com/youtube/2.0/developers_guide_protocol_captions?hl=en
Cheap fix: You can click on the "interactive transscript" button - and copy the content this way. Of course you lose the milliseconds this way.
Extremely cheap fix: A shared youtube account - so that multiple people can edit and upload caption files.
Challenging solution: The youtube API allows downloading and uploading of caption files via HTTP... You may write a youtube API application to provide a browser user interface for uploading or downloading for ANY user or particular users.
Here is an example project for this in java http://apiblog.youtube.com/2011/01/youtube-captions-uploader-web-app.html
Here is very simple example of a working upload for everybody: http://yt-captions-uploader.appspot.com/