While ChatGPT is free enough now, this method of getting my timestamps does require a paid Zoom account.
With Zoom you can get the transcript of your entire conversation, including timestamps. Any tool that gives you the transcript of your conversation will suffice, but with regards to longer conversations, Zoom goes pretty far in terms of dollar value. What’s important is you get the transcripts with timestamp tracking each person.
From that point ChatGPT is ready to perform its magic. It can summarize your document into something useful that you can copy and paste into a YouTube video description. While there may be faster ways of doing this, I can explain how I now do this, the comment section is there to teach me better ways.
Let’s start with Zoom being set up right.
Step 1- You need to enable audio transcripts for cloud recordings
Basically this article will explain how to set that up.
Test it and double check everything. Unfortunately if you don’t capture it with the cloud recording feature, you will not get the transcripts. I somehow failed a couple of weeks in a row without testing.
When done correctly, your transcript will be available on the Zoom website in the Recordings section.
I spent 3 weeks in a row before I flicked the right switch and then because I thought I had done it right I ended up with no timestamps for two whole episodes.
Don’t be like me, follow the steps properly.
Step 2- Start recording to the Zoom Cloud when your podcast actually starts
In a lot of cases you will be on the Zoom before the podcast starts getting ready.
Do not start recording from the beginning of the call. If you want your 00:00:00 to line up correctly with your episode, you need to wait until the last minute and only then click the start recording. Make sure to send it to the cloud or this will not work.
The downside is you need to run the recording until the Zoom call is over.
It’s pretty easy to CTRL + F your way to the end of a podcast and delete the rest after.
Step 3 - Download the TXT file from Zoom and clean it before ChatGPT
You want to delete stuff that’s not relevant for your podcast.
As an example, you want to delete any post-podcast chatter. During Our PRSPCTVS, we show movie trailers and Zoom thinks I’m saying everything the trailer says. I need to amend the file to take that into account. I mark the start and beginning of that section so ChatGPT knows not to include any of that transcription. That’s all part of one segment of the show anyway.
I use labels like “Start of Cinematic PRSPCTVS” and “End of Cinematic PRSPCTVS” that I will then tell ChatGPT to watch for.
Now it’s time to set up Chat GPT.
Step 4 - Have a quick conversation with ChatGPT in a fresh chat explaining what you want
You need to be really clear with your prompt.
The more details you can add the better it will be. As an example I started with:
Can you take on the role of someone who specializes in reading transcriptions and creating summaries. The transcriptions are for a YouTube video podcast. The transcription needs to be turned into a series of chapters for YouTube with timestamps that describe what general topics are discussed. When creating these chapters, the goal is to focus on titles that have keywords and not include our names unless it's extremely noteworthy. Instead of saying "Holden is going to record the bonjour-hi song" you could say "Getting started on the bonjour-hi song". Can you please summarize what I just said before I give you the transcript?
In its response it thought I wanted it to say nobody’s name. I had to clarify I meant the podcaster names.Then I had to create a new rule about 3-12 minute intervals because it was too specific.
Then I had to explain I wanted a 00:00:00 timestamp format.
Inevitably it gave me the format I wanted and a breakdown, but it still wasn’t that easy since my prompt lacked all those additional details.
You get the hang of it the more you try.
Step 5 - Talk to the chat and find out what it’s doing when things go wrong
It would not list out the entire timestamp list at first.
Turns out it would timeout at a certain point in the transcript and then give me the results. I then had to instruct it to start again from the timestamp where it stopped.
Finally it got to the part I marked for Cinematic PRSPCTVS and had trouble understanding what I wanted.
I needed to be clear that “Start of Cinematic PRSPCTVS” meant. I needed to explain how to format it. For some reason it threw it off, here’s a literal prompt I needed to give:
When listing it out Cinematic PRSPCTVS should not be separate. it needs to be formatted like a YouTube video list
You really just need to talk to the chat and create alignment. Feel free to ask it to summarize what you said to make sure it understands you. Only move ahead when you and the chat agree on what is supposed to happen.
Finally I got my list, but I noticed something was weird.
Step 6 - Adjust the timestamps to match real life time
It turns out Zoom timestamps do not match real life, the Zoom transcript length was about 30 % longer than the video.
All you need to do is find out the actual video length and hit them with a prompt like:The total episode length is actually 01:26:25 Can you convert the timestamps so that they match that length, but keep the same ratio
The end result is a list, ready for copy and paste.I highly recommend you read it first and make sure it’s accurate. At this point you can take the time to read the reference text and give it advice on how you want it to create summaries moving forward.
The more you refine what you want and collect examples, the better you can prepare ChatGPT in the future. As an example if you find sections you can title better, keep those in a separate DOC File. In the future you can have ChatGPT reference that example document as a way to properly create chapter headings based on your style.
I’m not quite there yet but when I do it I’ll update you.
I promise this is better than doing nothing as it will pay attention to all the side banter.
This is not a foolproof flow but it has given me more focus while recording live
I used to have to keep track of timestamps while trying to remain engaged in a conversation.
Now the AI Tools out there are making my life significantly easier. I know a lot of people hate generative AI, but use cases like this make a big deal for people like me. It really unlocks time that I can spend on things that matter more to me than timestamping a podcast.
As a rule of advice, keep a running file that you can save your prompts in. Especially things you write that explain your business or details of a project. Sometimes you have to start fresh with a new chat and this will save you a lot of time.
I hope you find this helpful
Live Long and Prosper Everyone
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