remotion-dev/remotion · error · Error

Invalid MPEG layer

Error message

Invalid MPEG layer

What it means

Thrown by getSamplesPerMpegFrame() (samples-per-mpeg-file.ts) when the (mpegVersion, layer) pair does not match any of the supported branches. Valid MPEG audio layers are 1, 2, 3 for MPEG-1 and MPEG-2; any other combination (e.g. layer === 0, which is 'reserved' in the spec) falls through to the throw.

Source

Thrown at packages/media-parser/src/containers/mp3/samples-per-mpeg-file.ts:32

			return 1152;
		}
	}

	if (mpegVersion === 2) {
		if (layer === 1) {
			return 384;
		}

		if (layer === 2) {
			return 1152;
		}

		if (layer === 3) {
			return 576;
		}
	}

	throw new Error('Invalid MPEG layer');
};

View on GitHub (pinned to 78fe4bb3fd)

Solutions

1. Validate the frame header's layer bits before computing samples-per-frame: layer must be 1, 2, or 3.
2. Re-encode the source audio to a clean MP3: ffmpeg -i in.mp3 -c:a libmp3lame -b:a 192k out.mp3
3. If parsing untrusted input, wrap the parse call in try/catch and skip the offending frame.

Example fix

// before
const spf = getSamplesPerMpegFrame({layer, mpegVersion});

// after
if (layer !== 1 && layer !== 2 && layer !== 3) {
  throw new Error(`Skipping frame with reserved MPEG layer ${layer}`);
}
const spf = getSamplesPerMpegFrame({layer, mpegVersion});

// Validate MPEG layer before computing samples-per-frame.
function isValidMpegLayer(layer: number): boolean {
  return layer === 1 || layer === 2 || layer === 3;
}
if (!isValidMpegLayer(layer)) {
  throw new Error(`Reserved/invalid MPEG layer ${layer} — corrupt frame`);
}

function isValidMpegLayer(layer: number): layer is 1 | 2 | 3 {
  return layer === 1 || layer === 2 || layer === 3;
}

try {
  const spf = getSamplesPerMpegFrame({layer, mpegVersion});
} catch (err) {
  if (err instanceof Error && err.message === 'Invalid MPEG layer') {
    // skip this frame; do not abort the whole parse
  } else throw err;
}

When it happens

Trigger: An MP3 frame whose layer field is the reserved value 0b00, or an mpegVersion outside the handled 1/2 set. Usually a corrupt frame header or non-MPEG data being parsed as MPEG.

Common situations: Corrupt/truncated MP3; random bytes misidentified as MP3; a frame header where bit-flips changed the layer field to the reserved value.

Related errors

• Expected Layer I, II or III
• Free bitrate not supported
• Invalid Xing header
• xing header was parsed wrong: read beyond available data
• No MP3 info

AI-assisted analysis of remotion-dev/remotion@78fe4bb3fd (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c41a34a975d63991. Report an issue: GitHub.