alexAt InqScribe, we strive to create the best, most reliable transcription software. But, as some of you are aware, we aren’t the only ones on the market. You may even use a combination of other transcription tools alongside InqScribe in your line of work. To help clarify and distinguish InqScribe from the competition, we thought a simple, honest comparison might be helpful. In this post we’ll be looking at Express Scribe, one of our popular competitors.
First, let’s start with the basics. Both Express Scribe and InqScribe are designed to make transcription a faster, easier, and more user-friendly experience. Combing an audio/video player with a text editor, they both employ features such as adjustable play speed, foot pedal support, and custom keyboard shortcuts. Currently, InqScribe is built around Windows Media Player 11 and QuickTime 7 (though change is around the corner). This means InqScribe will play pretty much anything supported by these media players. Express Scribe has its own set of supported formats.
InqScribe and Express Scribe offer a free limited version of the software, in addition to a more fully-featured 14-day trial. The biggest difference here is that the free version of Express Scribe limits you to only a few audio file formats (specifically, AIFF, MP3, WAV, and WMA), while InqScribe’s free version grants you full format support but limits your ability to save and export. It costs $40 to upgrade to the full version of Express Scribe, while a license of InqScribe sells for $99 with free updates and significant discounts for students, schools, and nonprofits.
Although Express Scribe and InqScribe are designed to fill a similar niche, they were built with different features in mind. Taken from NCH Software’s website, Express Scribe is a “professional audio player software for PC or Mac designed to assist the transcription of audio recordings.” Express Scribe takes more of a focus on audio transcription, and some of its features reflect this, including the ability to “dock” dictation devices. Many Express Scribe users work with a separate text editor such as Word, controlling their media in the “mini” view or using system-wide shortcuts.
In contrast, InqScribe was built from the ground up with professional video transcription in mind. We focus on the ability to type a transcript in the same window that’s controlling a media file. Aside from allowing you to visualize what you’re typing, same-window transcription prevents juggling between programs and frees you from trying to locate which media file is associated with which text document. InqScribe does it all in one compact place.
If you’re transcribing audio recordings and prefer working in a separate text editor, then Express Scribe could be right for you. It does boasts a native spell-check and word counter, which are admittedly absent in InqScribe (for now, that is…).
That said, InqScribe offers a few unique features of its own. Working in the same window allows you to take advantage of clickable timecodes. As soon as you click on a recognized timecode, InqScribe will take you directly to that spot in the video or audio file. Some of our users employ this feature to annotate their videos, using InqScribe to take notes on specific moments in their media file.
One of my favorite features in InqScribe are snippets. The ability to quickly insert custom bits of text can considerably speed up a workflow. For example, I like to assign the “Enter” key to insert a line of blank space, a timecode, and the main speaker’s name. Snippets can make typing faster and help ensure consistency in the transcript.
Once you have your transcript proofed and ready to go, InqScribe allows you to export into a variety of file formats– such as plain text, XML, Subrip SRT, etc. You can even save your transcript directly into a subtitled QuickTime Movie. No matter if you’re creating high-quality professional videos or a quick draft, InqScribe will accommodate your needs. In fact, we encourage users to find the workflow that best suits them, whether it’s with Word, Excel, Final Cut Pro, or YouTube.
Lastly, we welcome feedback from our users. Be it a support question, a feature request, or an honest opinion, we’re a small team that reads and responds to all inquiries. We hope you’ve found this a useful comparison. If you have any questions about whether InqScribe is right for you, feel free to email us at support@inqscribe.net
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