Video Transcriber Actor 🎤🎬 This Apify Actor automates the process of downloading videos from public URLs, extracting their audio content, and then transcribing the audio into text using OpenAI's powerful speech-to-text models (GPT-4o Mini Transcribe or GPT-4o Transcribe). ## Use Cases - Transcribing lectures, talks, or presentations. - Generating subtitles or text content from video podcasts. - Making video content searchable by transcribing its audio. - Analyzing spoken content in a collection of videos. ## Input Configuration The actor requires the following input fields. Your OpenAI API key is essential for the transcription service to work. | Field | Type | Description | Default Value | | :------------------------------ | :------- | :---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | :--------------------------- | | video_urls | Array | Required. A list of public direct URLs to video files (e.g., MP4, MOV, AVI). Each URL will be processed. | [] (Example prefilled) | | openai_api_key | String | Required. Your OpenAI API key. This is treated as a secret and stored securely. | N/A | | openai_model | String | The OpenAI model for transcription. gpt-4o-mini-transcribe is fast & cost-effective; gpt-4o-transcribe may offer higher accuracy. | gpt-4o-mini-transcribe | | openai_transcription_language | String | Optional. Language of the audio in ISO-639-1 format (e.g., en for English). If omitted, OpenAI attempts auto-detection. | "" (Empty String) | | openai_transcription_prompt | String | Optional. Text prompt to guide the model's style or vocabulary (e.g., for specific jargon or names). | N/A | | openai_transcription_temperature| String | Sampling temperature (0.0-1.0, provided as a string e.g., "0.2"). Lower values are more deterministic. | "0.0" | | max_concurrent_tasks | Integer| Maximum number of videos to process in parallel. | 5 | | max_retries | Integer| Number of times to retry processing a video if an error occurs. | 3 | Example Input JSON: json { "video_urls": [ "https://www.ffmpeg.org/example-assets/Counting_Atoms_preview.mp4", "https://another-public-domain.com/another-video.mp4" ], "openai_api_key": "sk-yourSecretOpenAiApiKeyGoesHere", "openai_model": "gpt-4o-mini-transcribe", "openai_transcription_language": "en", "openai_transcription_prompt": "Focus on scientific terminology.", "openai_transcription_temperature": "0.2", "max_concurrent_tasks": 5, "max_retries": 3 } ## Output The actor saves each transcription result as a separate item in the Apify Dataset. Each item will have the following structure: json { "download_url": "https://www.example.com/video.mp4", "transcription": "This is the transcribed text from the video...", "status": "succeeded" // or "failed" } If a video fails to process after all retries, the transcription will be null, status will be failed, and an error field will contain the error message. ## How to Use 1. Go to the Actor page on the Apify Store. 2. Click on "Try actor". 3. Fill in the input configuration fields, especially video_urls and your openai_api_key. 4. Click "Start" to run the actor. 5. When the run finishes, you can find the results in the "Dataset" tab of the run console. ## Limitations - URL Accessibility: Video URLs must be publicly accessible and direct links to video files. Redirects are followed, but complex authentication or sites requiring browser interaction are not supported. - OpenAI API Limits: Your OpenAI API usage is subject to your OpenAI account's rate limits and quotas. Long videos or large batches might take time or hit these limits. - Video Size/Length & Memory: * The actor downloads each video into the computer's memory before it can extract the audio. * If you set max_concurrent_tasks to a certain number (e.g., 5), the actor might try to hold up to that many videos in memory at the same time. * Very large video files (e.g., several gigabytes) combined with a high number of concurrent tasks can lead to high memory consumption. This could potentially cause the actor to run out of memory and stop, especially on plans with limited resources. * Recommendation: If you are processing very large video files, consider starting with a lower max_concurrent_tasks value (e.g., 1 or 2) and monitor its performance. - CDN Link Stability: If using temporary CDN links (e.g., from some social media platforms), they may expire. Prefer stable, direct URLs. ## Support & Issues If you encounter any issues or have suggestions for improvement, please open an issue on the GitHub repository for this actor (if applicable, or provide another contact method). --- Happy Transcribing!