Timestamp Video Notetaking

[juliang22]

Hello Obsidian users!

Do you use Obsidian to take notes on videos?

Have you ever wanted to return to a specific place in a video while taking your notes?

Do you want to be able to watch videos INSIDE Obsidian?

I certainly have! After scouring the forums for a plugin like this and realizing this functionality simply did not exist yet, I decided to join the community of Obsidian developers and make it myself! Hope you enjoy: GitHub - juliang22/ObsidianTimestampNotes: This plugin allows side-by-side notetaking with videos. Annotate your notes with timestamps to directly control the video and remember where each note comes from.

[sleepwalker]

Thanks. It can be a really useful plugin. Does it work with local video files?

[yuriserrano]

Good Morning @juliang22

Would I like to know if you pretend to support local videos as well?

Have a nice day

[nottakumasato]

There is also another plugin that has a similar use-case: GitHub - aidenlx/media-extended: Media(Video/Audio) Playback Enhancement for Obsidian.md

[risibledog]

Hey @juliang22 I love this plugin so much, and it’s been hugely useful to me for taking notes on videos from URLs.

This morning I looked at the recent updates & noticed that apparently support for local video files has also been added. Your readme file contains instructions that users can set a hotkey for “Opening a local video” - which I would love to do, but the plugin does not seem to create an option for that hotkey. Not sure if I am missing something!

I have also tried to open local videos using the complete filepath as if it were a URL, but this also does not work.

Would love to be able to access the local video function. Can you help?

[risibledog]

UPDATE: I found a way that seems to work (although I am seeing reports that it may work inconsistently).

• use the command palette (or a keyboard shortcut) to use the function called “Timestamp Notes: Open sample modal (complex)”
• this will open a small file selection module window. from there, you can select which video file you’d like to play.
• This does not generate an initial “video link” object, so you will want to name the markdown file you’re using to take timestamped notes in accordance with the name of the video file you are analyzing.

Maybe this will helps some folks!
(I have also tried the ‘media extended’ plugin, which seems good [tho I wish it were possible to just use relative ./ file paths for local files], but thus far I prefer the implementation & functionality of ‘Timestamp Notes’.)

[Brokencranes]

I’ve been using the Media Extended plugin and it’s worked great! Only issue is not being hotkeys for the videos (play, stop, rewind, etc). Anyone figure out a way to make this work?

[Sobrio]

Brilliant!

[nostalgicfields]

Is it possible to add a shortcut that inserts a screenshot based on the current video’s play time?

[Abdelrhman]

Fix Problem with media extended Plugin when switch from editing to reading

Summary put timestamps into >[!note] like this : [image] [image] [image] at normal mode like this : [image] if you make timestamp note for youtube video this problem will happen : https://forum.obsidian.md/t/problems-with-switching-mode/56090/9 you can take a look at this https://forum.obsidian.md/t/method-to-solve-media-extented-plugin-at-editing-mode/54105

[qwertyqwerty2]

Can you please please add the hotkey options to inc/dec. the playback speed of the video?
This is something very very important.

another issue: is the constant “more videos” by youtube that keeps appearing when pausing the video, can you remove it? or can we remove it ourselves? I tried using “unhook from yt” extension but I’m not sure if it’s translating to obsidian

a really minor issue: after pasting the youtube link,selecting it and pressing the hotkey, the cursor goes out of the editing page. I think it would be much better if it stays inside of it.

other than that , this is really one of the best things I’ve ever seen on the internet and one of the top 3 obsidian plugins of all time

Thank you so much!!

[untilhamza]

Hi Julian,

I just discovered your Timestamp Video Notetaking plugin while researching solutions in this space. First off, thank you for building this - it’s clearly filled an important need in the Obsidian community!

I wanted to share another approach I’ve been developing called HoverNotes that might complement your work. While your plugin brilliantly handles videos inside Obsidian, HoverNotes takes a different angle by working directly in the browser:

• It’s a Chrome extension that processes videos as you watch them on their native platforms (YouTube, Udemy, etc.)
• Notes save directly to your local Obsidian vault in markdown format
• One-click screenshots with timestamps are embedded in your notes
• Optional AI can help generate notes based on visual and audio content
• Works on any video platform, including those that don’t offer embedding

What’s interesting is how our approaches solve the same problem from different directions - yours brings videos into Obsidian, while HoverNotes brings Obsidian integration to videos wherever they live online.

For Obsidian users who watch a lot of online content, having both options available could be really powerful. I’d love to hear your thoughts on how these approaches might complement each other!

If you’re interested in checking out HoverNotes: [Chrome Web Store link]

Thanks again for your contributions to the Obsidian community!