How to Make Transcripts 

I use a microcassette recorder. Mainly because the recorder is very fast. I can sit at a desk, holding the it in one hand, doing the controls with the same hand, and write with the other hand. Rewind, replay, write. It's very easy. Alternately, more stop and start by typing. Now that I have a VCR, I use the advantages of jotting very accurate visuals and of lip-reading hard to make out dialogue.

However, it does take time. I became quite fast but it still takes at least ten times the program length (but it really depends on the program). Typing it in (if I didn't type from the tape), adding the visual details, checking it, and formatting it, all adds even more time. One problem of not having a VCR tape is the added effort of taking copious notes on the visuals.
Hardware to Grab Closed Captioning Text: Someone e-mailed me that many new TVs have an option (via their menus or on the front of the TV itself) that turns on Closed Captioning. You don't need a Closed Captioning device these days to get it. Someone else e-mailed me about an article in Electronics Now magazine's Nov 1994 issue about how to grab this text from your TV signal. The instructions looked like Greek to me. They did also mention a pricey, pre-made, text grabbing device, the TextGrabber, available on the market. I recently got one and am happy with it. Future transcripts will surely mention using it.

And yet another person (yey!) wrote me saying Closed Captioning is quite accurate, especially in fiction programs. However, he noted, they can mess up oddly spelled names ("Tina" instead of "Tena" in an X-Files CC) and sometimes differ from the broadcast slightly (an example from The X-Files episode, "Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man": the CC had, something like, "well, what'll it be, Ronald?" but the broadcast didn't have the "Ronald.").

If you're using DVD's and like trying new software, try Talk TV, a software project that apparently lets you get the Closed Captioning off a DVD. I haven't tried it, myself. (http://www.media.mit.edu/~erikb/talkTV/)
(My assessment of Closed Captioning, now that I have it, is it's pretty accurate, but doesn't get stutters nor cut off speech and does not note emphases on words. My guess is they sometimes have the script available at least for reference. For instance, perfect spelling of non English speech.)

Note: I've heard that The X-Files (or FOX-TV in general) and VIACOM both stop Web sites from using copyrighted material, such as images and transcripts. Obviously, since Universal Studios threatened me into taking down eleven transcripts, they are also a group to be aware of.

Last Update: 11 August 2001