voxreel 0.1.1

Transcribe audio, convert GIFs to MP4, and speak text - one cross-platform CLI

Media Tools

Cross-platform command-line helpers for everyday media jobs: transcribe audio and video, convert GIFs to MP4, and render text to speech with Piper.

Media Tools is built as a normal Python package with one CLI, media-tools, and small optional file-manager wrappers. It is intended to work on Windows, macOS, and Linux without tying the project to one desktop environment.

What It Does

• Transcribes audio and video to .txt and .vtt using faster-whisper.
• Converts animated GIFs to browser-friendly .mp4 files using ffmpeg.
• Renders text files to .wav audio using Piper TTS voices.
• Installs into a local .venv with setup helpers for Linux, macOS, and Windows.
• Keeps the core implementation in reusable Python modules under src/media_tools/.

Quick Install

Linux and macOS:

scripts/setup.sh --install-system-deps --download-piper-voice

Windows PowerShell:

.\scripts\setup.ps1 -InstallSystemDeps -DownloadPiperVoice

These commands create .venv, install the Python package and dependencies, optionally install ffmpeg, and optionally download the default Piper voice files.

For more install options, see docs/INSTALLATION.md.

Quick Start

media-tools transcribe path/to/file.mp4
media-tools gif-to-mp4 path/to/animation.gif
media-tools speak path/to/script.txt

Equivalent module form:

python -m media_tools --help

Commands

Transcribe Media

media-tools transcribe interview.mp4

Outputs:

• interview.txt
• interview.vtt

Useful options:

media-tools transcribe interview.mp4 --model small --language en --output-dir transcripts

Convert GIF to MP4

media-tools gif-to-mp4 clip.gif

Outputs:

• clip.mp4

Useful options:

media-tools gif-to-mp4 clip.gif --output-dir converted

Speak Text with Piper

media-tools speak narration.txt

Outputs:

• narration.wav

Useful options:

media-tools speak narration.txt --voice en_US-lessac-high --output-dir audio

More examples are in docs/USAGE.md.

Requirements

• Python 3.10 or newer
• Internet access during first install so pip can download Python dependencies
• ffmpeg on PATH for GIF conversion
• Piper voice model files for text-to-speech

Supported automatic ffmpeg installers:

• Linux: apt-get, dnf, yum, pacman, zypper, or apk
• macOS: Homebrew
• Windows: winget, Chocolatey, or Scoop

Piper Voices

By default, media-tools speak looks for en_US-lessac-high.onnx and en_US-lessac-high.onnx.json in the platform cache directory:

• Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\media-tools\Cache\voices\piper
• macOS: ~/Library/Caches/media-tools/voices/piper
• Linux: ${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-~/.cache}/media-tools/voices/piper

You can override this with MEDIA_TOOLS_PIPER_VOICE_DIR, --voice-dir, or --model-path.

Documentation

• Installation
• Usage
• Troubleshooting
• Publishing checklist

Development

Run the pure unit tests without requiring Whisper, Piper, or ffmpeg at test time:

PYTHONPATH=src python -m unittest discover -s tests

Project layout:

• src/media_tools/ core package and CLI
• scripts/ optional setup and file-manager helper scripts
• tests/ unit tests for pure logic
• assets/ README and marketing assets
• docs/ public documentation

License

MIT. See LICENSE.