Putting a Lao video in
Drop in the video file unchanged: MP4, MOV, MKV, WEBM, AVI, M4V, 3GP or a phone screen recording. The sound track is pulled out on the server, so there is no convert-to-MP3 step, and every timestamp still matches the picture. If the video is online, paste its public link under Import from link: YouTube, Shorts, TikTok, public Vimeo, Dropbox or Google Drive share links, or a direct link to a video file. Only the audio is downloaded. Playlists and channels are refused, so queue videos one link at a time, and sign-in-only posts such as Instagram need to be downloaded and uploaded.
After processing, each line of the draft is tied to its moment in the video. Click it to listen, fix it, and keep going; edits save on their own.
What a Lao draft looks like
Lao is a low-resource language for the speech model. Expect a rough draft with many corrections, best on slow and clear speech from one person, and weaker on fast conversation, singing or noisy markets. It still gives you timing and a large share of the words, which beats typing a long video from scratch.
Lao script runs words together without spaces and marks tones with small signs above the letters; missing or wrong tone marks are a common fix. Lao is close to Thai, and the Isan speech of north-east Thailand is a Lao variety. Because of that, the draft can drift into Thai spellings or Thai script. Keep Lao selected for videos from Laos and Lao diaspora communities; for Isan videos made for a Thai audience, Thai may give a more usable text.
Lao videos people transcribe
Examples:
- Buddhist sermons and temple ceremonies, to keep the teaching in writing.
- News clips and interviews from Lao TV and Facebook pages.
- Family videos and elders' stories recorded by Lao families in the United States, France and Australia.
- Your own YouTube or TikTok videos, for Lao subtitles.
- Lessons for heritage learners studying Lao abroad.
Lao subtitles and fonts
Export SRT or VTT after editing. The files are UTF-8 and display correctly on YouTube. On a computer, pick a Lao font such as Phetsarath OT or Noto Sans Lao in your subtitle editor, otherwise tone marks may sit in the wrong place or show as boxes. DOCX and PDF suit a written record, with timestamps on or off.
Tips and translation
Record close to the speaker, keep music out from under the voice, and switch on audio repair for outdoor or crowd footage. Speaker labels are available on paid plans and with a Minute Pack.
The transcript stays in Lao. For an English reading, open the Google Translate link on the transcript, or use the AI prompt export to hand the text to ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini. For audio-only recordings, see the Lao audio to text page.