Audio playback and captioning

A computer program product for playback optimization, the computer program product comprising:

• one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media and program instructions stored on the one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media capable of performing a method, the method comprising:
• transcribing an audio stream while played at normal playback speed, wherein the normal playback speed is that at which the audio stream was recorded;
• transcribing the audio stream while played at high playback speed;
• determining whether portions of the audio stream are unintelligible at the high playback speed based on comparing the transcripts;
• in response to determining that the portions of the audio stream are unintelligible at the high playback speed, reducing a speed of the high playback speed for the unintelligible portions;
• transcribing the audio stream with the unintelligible portions played at the reduced high playback speed;
• determining whether the unintelligible portions are still unintelligible at the reduced high playback speed based on comparing the transcripts;
• based on determining that the unintelligible portions are intelligible at the reduced high playback speed, identifying the reduced high playback speed as an optimal playback speed of the unintelligible portions;
• and
• in response to receiving a request to play the audio stream at the high playback speed, playing the unintelligible portions at the optimal playback speed.

A computer system for playback optimization, the system comprising:

• one or more computer processors, one or more computer-readable storage media, and program instructions stored on the one or more of the computer-readable storage media for execution by at least one of the one or more processors capable of performing a method, the method comprising:
• transcribing an audio stream while played at normal playback speed, wherein the normal playback speed is that at which the audio stream was recorded;
• transcribing the audio stream while played at high playback speed;
• determining whether portions of the audio stream are unintelligible at the high playback speed based on comparing the transcripts;
• in response to determining that the portions of the audio stream are unintelligible at the high playback speed, reducing a speed of the high playback speed for the unintelligible portions;
• transcribing the audio stream with the unintelligible portions played at the reduced high playback speed;
• determining whether the unintelligible portions are still unintelligible at the reduced high playback speed based on comparing the transcripts;
• based on determining that the unintelligible portions are intelligible at the reduced high playback speed, identifying the reduced high playback speed as an optimal playback speed of the unintelligible portions;
• and
• in response to receiving a request to play the audio stream at the high playback speed, playing the unintelligible portions at the optimal playback speed.