For use in a video recorder, there is disclosed a system and method for determining whether an incoming video program has been previously recorded by the video recorder. The system comprises a transcript processor that is capable of obtaining a transcript of the incoming video program from a number of different sources of text. The transcript processor is capable of assembling the transcript from closed caption text of the video program. The transcript processor compares the transcript of the incoming video program with transcripts of video programs that have been previously recorded by the video recorder in order to determine whether the incoming video program has been previously recorded by the video recorder. The incoming video program is not recorded a second time if it has been previously recorded.