remotion-dev/remotion · error · Error

Unknown WAV box type ${type}

Error message

Unknown WAV box type ${type}

What it means

parseWav dispatches on the 4-byte chunk FourCC and recognizes only riff, fmt, data, list, id3, junk, fllr, bext, cue, fact, and NUL. Any other chunk type is rejected rather than skipped, so an otherwise-valid WAV carrying an unknown chunk will fail the whole parse.

Source

Thrown at packages/media-parser/src/containers/wav/parse-wav.ts:56

	}

	if (type === 'id3') {
		return parseId3({state});
	}

	if (type === 'junk' || type === 'fllr' || type === 'bext' || type === 'cue') {
		return parseJunk({state});
	}

	if (type === 'fact') {
		return parseFact({state});
	}

	if (type === '\u0000') {
		return Promise.resolve(null);
	}

	throw new Error(`Unknown WAV box type ${type}`);
};

View on GitHub (pinned to 78fe4bb3fd)

Solutions

1. Strip non-essential chunks: ffmpeg -i in.wav -map_metadata -1 -c copy out.wav.
2. Identify the offending chunk in a hex editor.
3. Use Mediabunny, which skips unknown chunks; try/catch parseMedia().

Example fix

# drop metadata/unknown chunks, keep audio
ffmpeg -i in.wav -map_metadata -1 -c:a copy out.wav

await parseMedia({ src: 'out.wav' });

// ffprobe tolerates unknown chunks; if ffprobe loads it but parseMedia doesn't,
// strip metadata chunks: ffmpeg -i in.wav -map_metadata -1 -c copy out.wav

try {
  await parseMedia({ src: 'in.wav' });
} catch (err) {
  if (err instanceof Error && /Unknown WAV box type/i.test(err.message)) {
    // strip unknown chunks and retry, or use Mediabunny
  } else throw err;
}

When it happens

Trigger: A WAV containing a chunk FourCC outside the known set: 'ds64' (RF64), 'PEAK', 'smpl', 'inst', 'plst', vendor-specific chunks, or a corrupted FourCC from byte damage.

Common situations: Broadcast WAVs (bext/PEAK); RF64 files; DAW metadata chunks; corrupted chunk headers.

Related errors

• Expected WAVE, got ${fileType}
• File type ${fileType} not supported
• Only supporting WAVE with PCM audio format, but got ${audioF
• Unsupported bits per sample: ${bitsPerSample}
• Unsupported subformat: ${subFormat}

AI-assisted analysis of remotion-dev/remotion@78fe4bb3fd (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8041b981afc7f58a. Report an issue: GitHub.