When you transcribe a video with VTS you can export a plain transcript, a timestamped transcript, or an SRT subtitle file. They come from the same underlying transcription — the difference is purely how the text is structured. Picking the right one up front saves you reformatting work later.
Plain transcript
A plain transcript is just the words: clean, continuous, readable text with no time codes. It's the right choice when the content is what matters and the video is only the source.
- Note-taking and study
- Quoting a speaker in an article or report
- Repurposing an interview into written content
- Dropping into a document to search or summarize
Timestamped transcript
Same text, but every paragraph or line is prefixed with the moment it was spoken. Use it when you need to move between the text and the original video.
- Reviewing long lectures or talks
- Editing video from a paper edit
- Fact-checking against the source
- Anything over ~20 minutes where "where was that said?" matters
SRT subtitles
SRT is a captions format: numbered cues with start/end times, ready to load into a video player or upload alongside the video.
- Adding captions before republishing a video
- Accessibility and sound-off viewing
- Uploading to YouTube, Vimeo, or a social platform
Tip: If the video is going back online, generate SRT and a plain transcript in the same run — you get captions for the upload and clean text for everything else, with no extra cost.
The short version: plain for reading, timestamped for navigating, SRT for captioning. When in doubt, plain is the safe default — and you can always re-export.
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