remotion-dev/remotion · error · Error

No moov box found

Error message

No moov box found

What it means

In init-video, when state.m3uPlaylistContext.mp4HeaderSegment is set (HLS fMP4 init segment detected), the parser calls getMoovFromFromIsoStructure on that header bytes. If no moov atom is found in the init segment, it throws. The moov box is what carries track definitions, so without it the video tracks cannot be registered.

Source

Thrown at packages/media-parser/src/init-video.ts:34

	const fileType = state.iterator.detectFileType();
	const {mimeType, name, contentLength} = state;

	if (fileType.type === 'riff') {
		Log.verbose(state.logLevel, 'Detected RIFF container');
		state.structure.setStructure({
			type: 'riff',
			boxes: [],
		});
		return;
	}

	if (state.m3uPlaylistContext?.mp4HeaderSegment) {
		Log.verbose(state.logLevel, 'Detected ISO Base Media segment');
		const moovAtom = getMoovFromFromIsoStructure(
			state.m3uPlaylistContext.mp4HeaderSegment,
		);
		if (!moovAtom) {
			throw new Error('No moov box found');
		}

		const tracks = getTracksFromMoovBox(moovAtom);
		for (const track of tracks.filter((t) => t.type === 'video')) {
			await registerVideoTrack({
				track,
				container: 'mp4',
				logLevel: state.logLevel,
				onVideoTrack: state.onVideoTrack,
				registerVideoSampleCallback:
					state.callbacks.registerVideoSampleCallback,
				tracks: state.callbacks.tracks,
			});
		}

		for (const track of tracks.filter((t) => t.type === 'audio')) {
			await registerAudioTrack({
				track,

View on GitHub (pinned to 78fe4bb3fd)

Solutions

1. Validate the HLS playlist and its #EXT-X-MAP URI: download the init segment and run `ffprobe` to confirm it contains a moov atom.
2. Re-generate the HLS assets (e.g. `ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -c copy -f hls -hls_time 6 out.m3u8`) so the init segment is valid fMP4.
3. If multiple variants exist, ensure selectM3uStream picks a variant whose init segment is well-formed.
4. Report at https://remotion.dev/report if the stream plays in other HLS players but fails here.

Example fix

// before
await parseMedia({src: 'https://cdn/broken/master.m3u8', fields: {durationInSeconds: true}});

// after: verify init segment first
// fetch the #EXT-X-MAP URI and confirm `ffprobe init.mp4` lists streams, then:
try {
  await parseMedia({src: 'https://cdn/fixed/master.m3u8', fields: {durationInSeconds: true}});
} catch (e) {
  if (e.message === 'No moov box found') throw new Error('HLS init segment is invalid');
  throw e;
}

// Fetch the HLS init segment (#EXT-X-MAP URI) and verify it has a moov
import {execFileSync} from 'node:child_process';
function isValidHlsInit(initUrl: string): boolean {
  try {
    execFileSync('ffprobe', ['-v','error', initUrl], {stdio: 'pipe'});
    return true;
  } catch { return false; }
}

try {
  await parseMedia({src: hlsUrl, fields: {durationInSeconds: true}});
} catch (e) {
  if (e instanceof Error && e.message === 'No moov box found') {
    throw new Error(`HLS init segment is invalid for ${hlsUrl}`);
  }
  throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Playing an HLS stream whose #EXT-X-MAP init segment (mp4HeaderSegment) does not contain a moov atom — e.g. the init is actually a media segment, is corrupt, or the playlist pointed at a non-fMP4 init. Reached only on the ISO-BMFF branch of init-video (m3uPlaylistContext.mp4HeaderSegment truthy).

Common situations: Misconfigured HLS master/media playlist, a CDN serving a stale or wrong init segment, transcoding pipelines that emit moof-only segments without a proper init, or version skew where the server changed the segment format.

Related errors

• No moov box found in header segment
• Expected an mp4 file
• Expected stsz box in trak box
• Expected stco box in trak box
• Expected stsc box in trak box

AI-assisted analysis of remotion-dev/remotion@78fe4bb3fd (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/714aa464d13f41b9. Report an issue: GitHub.