1Paste a link
Copy the video's address from your browser or from YouTube's Share button and paste it into Add video in your library. Regular links, youtu.be short links, Shorts and finished live streams all work.
VidBrain downloads the captions and reads the full transcript while you watch a short progress list. Long videos take a little longer. If the video has no captions, you'll be asked to paste the transcript instead (see videos without captions).
YouTube link
The spacing effect
- Same study time, spread out
- Retrieval effort strengthens memory
- Familiarity is not recall
- Finding the video
- Downloading the captions
- Reading the transcript
2Ask anything
Type a question the way you'd ask a classmate who watched it. VidBrain answers from the transcript only, and puts a timestamp after each claim, like [14:32].
Click a timestamp and the player jumps there and starts playing. That is how you check an answer before you rely on it: listen to the ten seconds around the citation. If the video doesn't cover your question, VidBrain says so.
Follow-up questions keep the context of the conversation, so "go deeper on the second point" works.
The spacing effect
- Same study time, spread out
- Retrieval effort strengthens memory
- Familiarity is not recall
Why does spacing beat cramming?
Two reasons come up. Each time you return to material after a gap, you have to work to retrieve it, and that effort is what strengthens the memory 14:32. Cramming feels better because the material is still fresh, so recognition gets mistaken for knowing 22:20.
The lecturer's practical version: review after one day, then three days, then a week 38:47.
3Publish key moments
Under the player there are three outputs, each one click away: Chapters (a timestamped outline), Key moments (a summary plus the moments that matter most) and a five-question Quiz.
Each output is published to a public page with the video embedded. Use Copy link to send it to a study group, a client or your audience. They can open it without an account, and the timestamps on the page play the video too.
Outputs are part of Pro and Lifetime. Free accounts can chat with one video.
- 14:32
Effort during retrieval is what builds memory
Returning after a gap is harder, and that difficulty is why it works.
- 22:20
Recognition is mistaken for knowing
Fresh material feels familiar, which is why cramming feels productive.
Tips for the tricky cases
Videos without captions
Some videos have no captions VidBrain can download. When that happens the form asks for the transcript instead. Many of these videos still show a transcript on YouTube itself:
- 1Open the video on YouTube in a desktop browser.
- 2Under the video, expand the description and click Show transcript.
- 3Drag to select every line in the transcript panel, then copy.
- 4Back in VidBrain, paste it into the Transcript box, add a title, and click Add with my transcript.
Keep the timestamps when you copy. Lines like 12:34 and then she says… let citations point to the right second. Plain text without times works, but every citation will point to the start of the video.
Long lectures and podcasts
VidBrain reads the whole transcript, even for multi-hour videos, so you don't need to split anything up. A few habits help with long ones:
- Generate Chapters first. It gives you a map of the video and the times to point questions at.
- Ask about a stretch by time: "Between 40:00 and 55:00, what objections come up?"
- Ask one thing per question. "List every study the speaker mentions" gets a cleaner answer than a three-part question.
Questions that get precise answers
| Vague | Better |
|---|---|
| What is this video about? | Summarize the argument in five bullets, with a time for each. |
| Is this any good? | What evidence does the speaker give for the main claim? |
| Explain it. | Explain the forgetting curve the way the lecturer does, then give her example. |
| Anything about pricing? | Where do they talk about pricing, and what numbers do they give? |
Sharing and privacy
Your videos and chats are private to your account. Chapters, key moments and quizzes are published as public pages: anyone with the link can open them and search engines can index them. Skip the outputs for anything you need to keep private; chatting with the video never publishes anything.
Try it on the video you were about to watch.
Your first video is free, with unlimited questions.