xscribe 0.3.8

Transcribe video and audio to markdown with timestamps. Supports local files and streams.

xscribe

Download and transcribe any online video in minutes.

Turn any video or audio file into a clean, timestamped markdown transcript. Just point xscribe at a file, YouTube URL, or stream URL and get a readable transcript — no cloud services, no subscriptions, everything runs locally on your machine.

Powered by faster-whisper.

Install

pip install xscribe

Missing dependencies (ffmpeg, yt-dlp) are detected automatically — xscribe will offer to install them for you on first run.

Optionally, pre-download the transcription model so your first transcription is fast:

xscribe setup

Quick start

Transcribe a video file on your computer:

xscribe interview.mp4

This creates interview.md in your current folder with the full transcript and timestamps.

Transcribe a YouTube video:

xscribe "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"

Transcribe an online video stream:

xscribe "https://stream.example.com/video/playlist.m3u8"

xscribe will download the media first, then transcribe it.

Usage examples

# Transcribe a podcast episode
xscribe episode-42.mp3

# Transcribe a lecture recording
xscribe lecture.mov

# Transcribe a YouTube video URL
xscribe "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"

# Use a more accurate model (slower but better for tricky audio)
xscribe meeting.mp4 -m large-v3

# Save the transcript to a specific file
xscribe keynote.mp4 -o keynote-notes.md

# Force a specific language instead of auto-detect
xscribe video.mp4 -l es

# Force URL downloads to convert to mp3
xscribe "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" --audio-format mp3

# If YouTube blocks anonymous requests, pass browser cookies
xscribe "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" --cookies-from-browser chrome

# Force URL downloads to keep video-first behavior
xscribe "https://stream.example.com/video/playlist.m3u8" --download-mode video

# List videos detected on a page and pick one by index
xscribe "https://example.com/page-with-embeds" --list-videos
xscribe "https://example.com/page-with-embeds" --video-index 2

# Transcribe multiple files at once
xscribe recording1.mp4 recording2.mp4 recording3.mp4

# Pre-download a specific model
xscribe setup -m large-v3

Supported file types: mp4, mp3, wav, mov, mkv, webm, m4a, flac, ogg, and anything else ffmpeg can read.

How to get an .m3u8 URL from any website

Most streaming videos use .m3u8 playlist URLs behind the scenes. Here's how to find them:

1. Open the website with the video in Chrome or any browser
2. Right-click anywhere on the page and select Inspect (or press F12)
3. Click the Network tab in the developer tools panel
4. Play the video on the page
5. In the Network tab's filter/search bar, type .m3u8
6. You'll see one or more requests appear — right-click the URL and select Copy URL
7. Paste it into xscribe: xscribe "https://...your-copied-url.m3u8"

Options

Flag	Description
-m, --model	Whisper model size (see below)
-l, --lang	Force language code (e.g. en, es, fr, de, ja)
--download-mode	For URL inputs, choose audio (default) or video download behavior
--audio-format	For URL inputs, download/convert to one format: best, mp3, m4a, wav, opus, vorbis, flac
--list-videos	For URL inputs, list extractable videos with 1-based indexes and exit
--video-index	For URL inputs with multiple detected videos, pick one index to transcribe
--cookies-from-browser	For URL inputs, pass browser cookies to yt-dlp (for site-gated/blocked videos)
-o, --output	Custom output file path
-v, --version	Show version

Model sizes

Model	Flag	Best for
Tiny	-m tiny	Quick and dirty, when you just need the gist
Base	(default)	General use, good balance of speed and quality
Small	-m small	Better accuracy, still reasonably fast
Medium	-m medium	High accuracy for important transcripts
Large	-m large-v3	Best possible accuracy, but slowest

The model downloads automatically the first time you use it and gets cached for future runs. Use xscribe setup -m <model> to pre-download.

Output format

xscribe saves transcripts as markdown files with timestamps:

# Transcription

**Source:** `interview.mp4`

---

**[00:03]** Hello and welcome to the show.

**[00:07]** Today we're joined by a special guest...

**[01:24]** Let's dive into the first topic.

License

MIT