How do you structure Obsidian notes from long YouTube tutorials?

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I often watch 1–3 hour YouTube programming videos (on Python, algorithms, etc.) and use Obsidian to organize my study notes. The problem is that while the videos are rich in content, it’s hard to take useful notes during viewing without frequent interruptions.

What I’ve tried:
· Taking timestamps and bullet points manually
· Watching first, then summarizing afterward
· Embedding screenshots and code clips into notes
· Using plugins like Media Extended to watch inside Obsidian

These help somewhat, but I end up with fragmented notes or spend too much time pausing.

What I’m looking for: A workflow or template suited to long-form video learning—ideally in Obsidian.
For example:
· Divide videos into conceptual segments or outline sections
· Capture code snippets + explanations in atomic, linked notes
· Create a quick first-pass summary, then convert to structured notes

If anyone has experience turning video content into reusable Zettelkasten-style notes (or using specific templates/plugins for that), I’d love to know how you handle it.
Thanks in advance!

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What I’ve been doing these days is pulling videos into davinci resolve (downloading them with 4k downloader or something similar) and using a combination of the automatic subtitler on one track and making my own notes on a second subtitle track, exporting srts from that, and converting it into timestamped notes that can either be the body of a note or structured in the yaml.

Then I do a pass through that pulling anything actionable, or material to document or reference.

It’s a bit fussy and fiddly and I’m always trying to streamline it, but I think if you can have a workflow that lets you timestamp a video and make a quick note without stopping it all the time, you’ll be able to study more easily.

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I am very biased against educational material on YouTube, just as I am against any material presented in video format rather than text, but nevertheless, from time to time I have to resort to watching educational video courses and documentaries.

I have realized that watching this kind of material first for the purpose of getting acquainted with it, and then watching it a second time in order to summarize all the necessary information, is very time-consuming, and often I simply cannot bring myself to watch the material a second time right away — I just get tired of it, and it becomes less interesting to me. I have to force myself, and my brain doesn’t work as well as it could. Therefore, for me, this approach is a kind of idealization of the situation, which is not always applicable in practice.

Therefore, at the moment, I simply take notes while watching for the first time. I do this in a rather chaotic and disorganized manner, and only after I finish watching do I work through them, putting them in order and compiling an organized summary of the material I had to familiarize myself with, and then I divide this single summary into separate thoughts (atomicity).

But in general, I try to avoid working with material in video format. I believe that this format is much less effective for learning than text format. Videos take much more time to work with. It is much more difficult to navigate in a video than in a text. In videos, thoughts are often formulated and voiced in real time, while text is polished to the highest possible quality.
And in terms of overall quality, videos are very often inferior to books — although there are now quite a few poor-quality books out there.

For me, the video format is only good for its visual appeal, but not all activities require such a high level of visual appeal that you have to sit and watch another person’s activities continuously — often images or inserted videos in addition to text are sufficient.
Sometimes I choose this format for entertainment, or when I simply cannot read—it seems less demanding on the learner.

Therefore… subjectively, the best way to structure notes on long video material is to abandon the video material and use a book. When possible.

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You mentioned “Media Extended”. I’m not familiar with it — I use “Media Notes” instead, but I guess both serve a similar purpose.

In “Media Notes”, you can have the video playing at the top of the note while taking notes below. You can assign a hotkey to “insert timestamp”, which adds a link to the currently playing moment. You can customize how the link is displayed — e.g., [01:37](url). The URL is a valid YouTube link to a specific timestamp, but when you click it inside the note, it doesn’t open the link in a different window/tab — it simply moves the playback head to that moment.

I find it comfortable to take notes below the video while watching it, occasionally inserting timestamps at key points. Media Notes also lets you assign a hotkey for play/pause, in case you need more time to write.

If the video is worth it, I sometimes reorganize the notes afterwards, adding more explanations, links to other notes, videos, or mentioned resources.

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Honestly, I do this all the time too — I totally get where you’re coming from. Tried tons of tools, but most just didn’t nail the accuracy. Then I came across this handy little tool called y2doc — not sure if it’s exactly what you need, but it’s worked great for my note-taking. Definitely worth giving it a shot!

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I have done something like 400 vids with my method:

I agree with @untitled; where possible, hunt down the author’s written material. I certainly do not relish going through videos where authors peddle their books, cite geographical names and other tongue twisters only to have AI mess those up completely and for me to go through them one by one. Use the videos mainly as appetizers, so when you find something that really interest you, you can delve deeper into the subject in some other format.

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