Rev - Review 2022 - Williams Fingthily

The process of transcribing an audio or video file can exist tedious and time consuming. You could spend hours typing out interviews and notes by yourself, or you could make your life easier by using a transcription service like Rev. This human being-based service is an excellent selection for transforming your recorded files, producing highly authentic transcripts at a reasonable price. Its spider web interface is only average and it lacks a subscription model (you take to pay by the infinitesimal), only these are only minor drawbacks to an otherwise outstanding service. For those reasons, Rev is our Editors' Selection for transcription services.

How Much Does Rev Toll?

Rev's pricing is straightforward; it costs $1 per infinitesimal of uploaded sound or video files. There'south no bulk charge per unit, extra cost for quicker delivery, or penalty for poor audio quality. The just exceptions are an extra $0.25 per infinitesimal each if you desire time stamps every 30 seconds or a verbatim transcription. Verbatim transcripts leave in all the filler words such as "uh" and "um." I like Rev's unproblematic pricing structure, though I wish it offered a monthly subscription option (at a discount) for professionals or teams who rely heavily on such services for their work.

The nether-12 hour turnaround time for files that are 30 minutes or shorter is amongst the fastest turnaround guarantees I've seen. Customers can opt in to Rev's Shorten Turnaround option for files over 30 minutes (at no extra cost), a delivery process which Rev claims is three times quicker than normal. If y'all select this option, your transcription task is divide into several segments (each worked on by a separate transcriptionist) and stitched together at the end. Rev does non offer a free trial option.

For comparing, Trint costs $15 per hr of audio transcribed or $forty per calendar month for 3 hours, if you go for their subscription model. Both are more cost-effective than Rev, though it is worth noting that Trint is an automated service—software does the job, not people. Scribie'due south middle-of-the-road option costs $1.20 per infinitesimal with a 36-hour turnaround fourth dimension. However, Scribie charges extra fees for recordings with poor quality or speakers with strong accents.

How It Works

To get started with Rev, you need to sign up with an electronic mail accost. In one case you log in, click the Get Started push on the main Transcription Page or Place New Lodge push from the business relationship section. Rev gives you the option to either upload a file directly from your computer or paste in a link to a public web accost. Once the file uploads successfully into the system, payment and service options announced. For example, y'all tin opt into the time-stamping or verbatim options and select the file format y'all prefer for exporting. The price in the upper left corner updates continuously depending on the options y'all select, and then you lot won't ever be caught off-guard past the final cost.

Once you confirm the order, Rev sends yous an email with the details, and and then a follow-up message in one case 1 of the company's freelancers starts working on the job. A Rev freelancer, otherwise known as a Revver, then has the selection to merits your transcription from a task board. But one transcriptionist works on your file in most cases. Revvers can remove themselves from a job if the audio is of poor quality or they are unable to complete it for some reason.

Once a Revver completes your transcription, Rev sends out a notification email, along with an choice to rate your Revver one time you stop reviewing the piece of work. This is 1 way the Rev ensures the quality of its transcriptionists, in addition to other internal quality checks.

Spider web Interface

You tin can access your completed file via the Rev website. The web console has a basic layout merely is fine for about tasks. That said, the interface feels a scrap text heavy and the thick greyness layout bars at the peak and bottom of sections wait dated, and the color scheme is a bit dull, also. The left-paw menu items include Users, Guild History, Search Orders, and Settings, along with billing and payment options. The Users section lets you add together whatever number of people to share your aforementioned billing account, which is useful for teams. I as well like the granularity of the settings options, which let you, for case, specify layout preferences for the exported file.

Most people will stick to the Order History section since that is where your transcribed files live. You lot tin can sort your orders past a few different categories including by date, size, or cost. Oddly, you need to visit a separate tab to search through any of your past orders. This data tin also be exported to a CSV. Clicking on an individual job brings you to a details page, where you lot can access the original file or download the transcription direct. Customization options include exporting it as a Word document, a text file, or as a PDF. Y'all can also cull betwixt a text-based and table format for the final document.

Regardless of the service you use, you lot will likely demand to make some changes to the final version or download a copy of an older job at some indicate. To admission Rev's web editor, click on the View & Edit option. This editing console is a simplified version of what Revvers apply, and information technology's an effective way to make changes before exporting. This interface has a clean design and eyesight-friendly dark background, which is helpful for people who stare at a screen virtually of the mean solar day. The blue, red, and white accents contribute help keep it organized.

Along the left rail, at that place are Undo and Redo buttons, a Reset to Original option, and a toggle for a highlighting feature. This lets you select any number of lines and text and continuously echo that department, for making detailed edits. On the right, playback controls include a Play/Intermission button a quick Rewind push button, as well every bit one for irresolute the playback speed. Some of these buttons have an associated keyboard shortcut, but for those that don't, familiar keyboard commands work as well. That said, the playback options can be finicky, and the automatic highlighting and timestamp elements that appear each time you reposition the mouse are distracting. Nonetheless, I really capeesh the speaker identification options. Next to each paragraph of text, you tin quickly select any of the identified speakers in the transcript from a driblet-down carte du jour.

Temi and Trint likewise offer a clean text editor as part of their web portal. Yet, GoTranscript does not include whatever such functionality.

How Accurate is Rev?

To examination out the accuracy of the transcription services, I uploaded the same xvi-minute recording to each one. The original recording of a three-person conference call came from an Olympus VN-722PC dedicated voice recorder. It'south not an easy recording, but all the voices are clearly audible and there is little, if any, overlapping of voices.

Rev returned the transcript in 1 hour and sixteen minutes, which is significantly quicker than Scribie managed. To be fair, Scribie did return the transcription within its promised timeframe, though it took over a twenty-four hour period to do so.

Instead of comparing the entirety of each transcript, I chose three paragraphs instead, one from each speaker on the call. For each snippet of the transcription, I marked an mistake wherever there was a missing or an actress discussion. I calculated the overall error rate past dividing the total number of mistakes into the total number of words across the combined sections (in this case, 201 words).

The sample for section A is a brusk introductory section. Section B is slightly longer, has more than varied punctuation, and uses more complex vocabulary. Section C is even lengthier and uses some technical language. Rev did an excellent task with this test; it but had an mistake rate of 3 percent. Scribie too turned in proficient results, with an error charge per unit of 6 percent. GoTranscript, the other human-based transcript service nosotros tested, produced reasonably good results as well, with an error rate of ten percent. Most of the automated services produced near unusable results. Have a await at the full nautical chart beneath for the complete breakdown.

I retested the automatic services with a simpler two-people, in-person recording and calculated the error rate, in the aforementioned manner, using two samples, instead of three. The automatic services fared ameliorate with this task, but they still weren't perfect. The full results of those tests announced below.

Mobile App

Rev offers a mobile app for Android and iOS, though the Android variant has non been updated since 2022. For comparison, the iOS version concluding received an update in October of 2022. We installed the app on an iPhone 8 running iOS eleven to test how it works. The app is like shooting fish in a barrel to utilise; just hit the red push button at the top of the app to start a recording.

Rev

Recordings appear in the heart section of the app. Y'all can delete information technology, edit details, trim or append the recording, and share the file from here. The other option is to guild a transcription of the file. Thankfully, there is a search bar for finding recordings by name, location, or date.

Placing your order is simple too. Transcriptions remain at the same $1 per infinitesimal charge per unit, and you can options such as timestamping (every ii minutes) for an actress $0.25 and specify the speaker names that appear in the transcript. It's worth noting that Rev offers a $10 discount on your first club. In one case the transcript is complete, you tin view it from within the app via the View Transcript button in the lower correct corner. The last option is to link Rev to your Dropbox account for piece of cake exports.

Rev recently released Rev Call Recorder for iOS. In brusk, this app lets you record and submit your telephone calls to Rev for transcription. Users can besides share and listen to any previous recordings from the app. Although these features are certainly useful, I feel similar Rev would practise amend to add them to its existing Android and iOS apps.

Both Temi and GoTranscript as well offering mobile apps that part in much the aforementioned mode. Both let you tape sound inside the app and straight society transcripts afterward. Otter'due south mobile app is by far the best; the interface looks the most modern and users can edit transcripts directly.

Rev It Up

Let's face it, transcribing whatever sound or video file is a hassle and requires time and dedication that you just may not have. That's where transcription services can be of aid. Rev performed very well in our accuracy test and makes it easy to make corrections via its online editor. On top of that, the pricing structure is both reasonable and straightforward. For those reasons, Rev receives our Editors' Choice award for transcription services.

For other software tools to keep yous on task and relieve y'all time, check out our roundup of the best productivity apps.