Show HN: SubSmith – Turn your own videos into language-learning material
The short version
- I'd find a video I wanted to learn from, hear a useful sentence, and then realise that turning that sentence into something I could study later was both time consuming and…
- I would end up jumping between a video player, subtitles/transcription, a dictionary, screenshots, audio clips and Anki.
- So I built SubSmith to bring that workflow together.
- It isn't tied to a particular streaming service or library, so I can use the random anime episode, podcast, lecture, etc. that I'm actually interested in studying.
- It's an offline-first desktop app, and transcription happens locally rather than sending the media to a transcription API.
The story
I've been learning Japanese for a few years and kept running into a similar problem. I'd find a video I wanted to learn from, hear a useful sentence, and then realise that turning that sentence into something I could study later was both time consuming and draining at times.
I would end up jumping between a video player, subtitles/transcription, a dictionary, screenshots, audio clips and Anki. So I built SubSmith to bring that workflow together.
You can drop a video or audio file into it, generate a transcript locally and then use the transcript alongside the media to:
* look up words and sentences * replay individual lines * edit the transcript * save useful sentences with their original context/audio * export them as Anki cards
The important part for me is that it works with your own media. It isn't tied to a particular streaming service or library, so I can use the random anime episode, podcast, lecture, etc. that I'm actually interested in studying.
It's an offline-first desktop app, and transcription happens locally rather than sending the media to a transcription API.
I'm sharing it here because I'm now more interested in finding out where this workflow breaks down for other people rather than adding features randomly now that I have solid core/base.
For example:
* Would you actually save sentences from your own media? * Which part of this process feels like too much work? * Does having the audio/context attached make creating an Anki card more useful? * Would you prefer this to work inside your existing video player/browser? * Is installing a desktop app a significant barrier? * And does requiring an account before starting the free trial make you give up?
The current version does require an account to start the trial, and I'm trying to work out whether that's meaningful friction for the people who would actually use this.
It's free to try, and I'd particularly appreciate feedback from people who already learn languages through their own videos, anime, films, podcasts or other media.
I'm the developer, so I'll be around in the comments to answer questions and discuss how it works.
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49476894
Points: 5
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