affaan-m/ECC · error · ValueError

Invalid media duration

Error message

Invalid media duration: {path.name}

What it means

For each input video, export_draft calls probe(path) to get its duration and rejects any duration that is not a finite positive number. Non-finite (NaN/inf), zero, or negative durations indicate unreadable or corrupt media, or a broken probe backend.

Solutions

1. Verify the file plays and ffprobe reports a duration: ffprobe -v error -show_entries format=duration <file>
2. Remove or re-download the corrupt/offending file (the message includes its name)
3. If passing a custom probe, ensure it returns a finite float > 0 and raises on unreadable media
4. Confirm the input is a video, not an image or audio-only file without duration

Example fix

// before
def probe(path): return None  # stub
export_draft(files, name='edit', probe=probe)

// after
def probe(path):
    out = subprocess.run(['ffprobe','-v','error','-show_entries','format=duration',
                          '-of','csv=p=0',str(path)], capture_output=True, text=True, check=True)
    return float(out.stdout.strip())

def duration_ok(d):
    return isinstance(d, (int, float)) and math.isfinite(d) and d > 0
for f in files:
    d = probe(Path(f).resolve(strict=True))
    if not duration_ok(d):
        raise ValueError(f'{f}: probe returned invalid duration {d!r}')

def has_valid_duration(d):
    return isinstance(d, (int, float)) and not isinstance(d, bool) and math.isfinite(d) and d > 0

try:
    export_draft(files, name=name)
except ValueError as e:
    if 'Invalid media duration' in str(e):
        bad = str(e).split(': ')[-1]
        sys.exit(f're-encode or remove corrupt media: {bad}')

When it happens

Trigger: A video file that ffprobe cannot read (corrupt file, unsupported codec), a custom probe callable returning None/NaN/0/negative, or files that resolve but are not actual media.

Common situations: Zero-byte or partially downloaded video files; image files passed instead of videos; a stubbed probe in tests/CI where ffprobe is missing and returns garbage; media with missing duration metadata in unusual containers.

Understand the failure class

Background: "invalid duration" / "failed to parse duration": why your timeout, interval, or TTL string is rejected and which formats each library accepts — this error's family across 32 libraries.

Related errors

• is outside its source duration
• probe duration is not bound to source duration
• application bundle differs from its bound evidence
• apply_local needs at least one media clip
• asset contains too few frames

AI-assisted analysis of affaan-m/ECC@8321021c54 (2026-09-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e7c824067632624d. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at skills/taste-application/scripts/tasteforge/media/capcut.py:69

    overwrite=False,
    cc=None,
    probe=duration_of,
):
    geometry(width, height, fps)
    if overwrite:
        raise ValueError("CapCut draft replacement is unsafe; choose a new name")
    if not re.fullmatch(r"[A-Za-z0-9][A-Za-z0-9_. -]{0,99}", name) or name.endswith(
        "."
    ):
        raise ValueError("Draft name must be a plain file name")
    if not files:
        raise ValueError("At least one video is required")
    prepared = []
    for filename in files:
        path = Path(filename).resolve(strict=True)
        duration = probe(path)
        if not math.isfinite(duration) or duration <= 0:
            raise ValueError(f"Invalid media duration: {path.name}")
        prepared.append((str(path), duration))
    if cc is None:
        import pycapcut as cc
    folder = cc.DraftFolder(str(drafts))
    script = folder.create_draft(name, width, height, fps=fps, allow_replace=False)
    script.add_track(cc.TrackType.video)
    elapsed = 0
    for filename, duration in prepared:
        script.add_segment(
            cc.VideoSegment(filename, cc.trange(f"{elapsed:.6f}s", f"{duration:.6f}s"))
        )
        elapsed += duration
    script.save()
    return {"name": name, "segments": len(prepared), "duration": elapsed, "saved": True}


def main(argv=None):
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description=__doc__)

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