DR: Transcription software choice

This is a record in the Decision Records on Solutions Adopted.

Issue

• https://github.com/hackforla/internship/issues/629

Problem Statement

We need to transcribe interviews video files into .txt files, therefore we need to decide on a transcription software that can help us transcribe all remaining interviews with a reasonable cost and a quality output.

Potential Solution

TurboScribe.ai

Feasibility Determination

1. We first compared multiple software's functionalities and costs, and TurboScribe and Otter were the final candidates since their features and costs met our needs.
   • The most essential criteria is the ownership of the transcript files. We must be able to download the transcript files and save them in Google Drive rather than using the platform to store them or being unable to download them once transcribed.
   • More more detailed comparison among the software, please refer to TWE: Research: Transcription Software Comparison.
2. We then tested TurboScribe.ai and Otter.ai using the same interview file (under 30 mins), and TurboScribe became the final choice because:
   • Lower cost:
     • TurboScribe's monthly fees ($20/month) is lower than Otter's Business account's monthly fee ($30/month)
   • Sufficient features:
     • TurboScribe allows unlimited transcription; 10 hours uploads (Each file can be up to 10 hours long / 5 GB, and uploading 50 files at a time).
     • Otter.ai has generated a summary of the interview file. However, we don't need that feature since we will be analyzing the data. Also, we are concerned about AI's potential hallucination.
   • Quality output:
     • Both TurboScribe and Otter yielded similar, quality transcripts with timestamps and recognized speakers that met our expectations.