Case 03262

Gettr Transcribe (MLX Whisper)

Quick start

# 1. Parse the slug from the URL (just read it — no script needed)
#    https://gettr.com/post/p1abc2def  → slug = p1abc2def
#    https://gettr.com/streaming/p3xyz → slug = p3xyz

# 2. Get the audio/video URL via browser automation (see Step 1 below)
#    For /streaming/ URLs: extract the .m4a audio URL
#    For /post/ URLs: extract the og:video .m3u8 URL

# 3. Run download + transcription pipeline
bash scripts/run_pipeline.sh "<AUDIO_OR_VIDEO_URL>" "<SLUG>"

To explicitly set the transcription language (recommended for non-English content):

bash scripts/run_pipeline.sh --language zh "<AUDIO_OR_VIDEO_URL>" "<SLUG>"

Common language codes: zh (Chinese), en (English), ja (Japanese), ko (Korean), es (Spanish), fr (French), de (German), ru (Russian).

This outputs:

• ./out/gettr-transcribe/<slug>/audio.wav
• ./out/gettr-transcribe/<slug>/audio.vtt

Summarization is handled separately by the caller (see your prompt for summarization instructions).

---

Workflow (GETTR URL → transcript)

Inputs to confirm

Ask for:

• GETTR post URL
• Language (optional): if the video is non-English and auto-detection fails, ask for the language code (e.g., zh for Chinese)

Notes:

• This skill does not handle authentication-gated GETTR posts.
• This skill does not translate; outputs stay in the video's original language.
• If transcription quality is poor or mixed with English, re-run with explicit --language flag.

Prereqs (local)

• mlx_whisper installed and on PATH
• ffmpeg installed (recommended: brew install ffmpeg)

Step 0 — Parse the slug and pick an output directory

Parse the slug directly from the GETTR URL — just read the last path segment, no script needed:

• https://gettr.com/post/p1abc2def → slug = p1abc2def
• https://gettr.com/streaming/p3xyz789 → slug = p3xyz789

Output directory: ./out/gettr-transcribe/<slug>/

Directory structure:

• ./out/gettr-transcribe/<slug>/audio.wav
• ./out/gettr-transcribe/<slug>/audio.vtt

Step 1 — Get the audio/video URL via browser automation

Use browser automation to navigate to the GETTR URL and extract the media URL from the rendered DOM.

For /streaming/ URLs (primary path)

Streaming pages provide a direct .m4a audio download. Extract it by deriving from the og:video meta tag:

1. Navigate to the GETTR streaming URL and wait for the page to fully load (JavaScript must execute)
2. Extract the audio URL via JavaScript:

   const ogVideo = document.querySelector('meta[property="og:video"]')?.getAttribute("content");
   // Replace .m3u8 with /audio.m4a to get the direct audio download URL
   const audioUrl = ogVideo.replace(".m3u8", "/audio.m4a");
   

3. Use the .m4a URL for the pipeline in Step 2

The .m4a URL is a direct file download (no HLS), so it downloads faster and more reliably than the .m3u8 stream.

For /post/ URLs (fallback path)

Post pages do not have a "Download Audio" button. Extract the og:video URL from the rendered DOM:

1. Navigate to the GETTR post URL and wait for the page to fully load
2. Extract the video URL via JavaScript:

   document.querySelector('meta[property="og:video"]')?.getAttribute("content");
   

3. Use the .m3u8 URL directly for the pipeline in Step 2

If browser automation is not available or fails, see references/troubleshooting.md for how to guide the user to manually extract the URL from their browser.

Step 2 — Run the pipeline (download + transcribe)

Feed the extracted URL and slug into the pipeline:

bash scripts/run_pipeline.sh "<AUDIO_OR_VIDEO_URL>" "<SLUG>"

To explicitly set the language (recommended when auto-detection fails):

bash scripts/run_pipeline.sh --language zh "<AUDIO_OR_VIDEO_URL>" "<SLUG>"

The pipeline does two things:

1. Downloads audio as 16kHz mono WAV via ffmpeg (handles both .m4a and .m3u8 inputs)
2. Transcribes with MLX Whisper, outputting VTT with timestamps

If the pipeline fails with HTTP 412 (stale signed URL)

This error occurs with /streaming/ URLs when the signed URL has expired. Re-run browser automation to get a fresh URL, then retry the pipeline.

If browser automation is not available or fails, see references/troubleshooting.md for how to guide the user to manually extract the fresh URL from their browser.

Notes:

• By default, language is auto-detected. For non-English content where detection fails, use --language.
• If too slow or memory-heavy, try smaller models: mlx-community/whisper-medium or mlx-community/whisper-small.
• If quality is poor, try the full model: mlx-community/whisper-large-v3 (slower but more accurate).
• If --word-timestamps causes issues, the pipeline retries automatically without it.

Bundled scripts

• scripts/run_pipeline.sh: download + transcription pipeline (takes an audio/video URL and slug)
• scripts/download_audio.sh: download/extract audio from HLS (.m3u8) or direct (.m4a) URL to 16kHz mono WAV

Error handling

• No audio track: The download script validates output and reports if the source has no audio.
• HTTP 412 errors: Occurs with /streaming/ URLs when the signed URL has expired. Re-run browser automation to get a fresh URL (see Step 1); if that fails, see references/troubleshooting.md.

Troubleshooting

See references/troubleshooting.md for detailed solutions to common issues including:

• HTTP 412 errors (stale signed URLs)
• Download errors
• Transcription quality issues