NotebookLM’s Video Overview: Your New Superpower

Ever stared at a pile of PDFs or a playlist of “I’ll watch these later” videos and felt your brain whisper "nope"? 😅

Same here. 🙈

Fear no more. The new Video Overview in NotebookLM turns that mountain of information into a beautiful video.

In just a few clicks, we can generate a visual summary that helps us learn faster, compare sources, and remember more.

Let's have a look at how it works and try it with a real world example. ✨

Step 1: create a new notebook

Open NotebookLM and create a fresh notebook.

Step 2: add sources

We are immediately prompted with a dialog to add sources. You can paste a YouTube URL, upload PDFs, or include other supported sources. Start simple. One good video or a couple of focused PDFs is enough to test.

Step 3: open Video Overview

Once the source is in, look to the right side panel and choose Video Overview. This is where the magic happens.

Step 4: fine tune (optional but powerful)

Click the pencil icon to open the options dialog. Here you can choose the format, language, visual style, and what the video should focus on:

Step 5: generate

Hit Generate and let NotebookLM assemble your video. After a few minutes, you’ll get a clean overview that distills the essentials.

A real world example

Here is a complete video walkthrough of the entire process:

that turned this 26-minute YouTube video:

into this 7-minute Video Overview in a first iteration:

and into this 7-minute Video Overview in a second iteration:

Summary

NotebookLM's Video Overview feature is incredibly powerful.

In just minutes, we can turn a set of inputs into a beautiful visual summary.

Create a notebook, add a source, open Video Overview, tweak if needed, and generate. Insanely simple, surprisingly powerful. 🚀🚀

Next time you're facing a stack of PDFs or a playlist you have been avoiding, NotebookLM Video Overview may be your perfect companion. 🤖

Happy video creation and have a great one! 🙌

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