A 52-minute podcast on Sume: the 1800-second limit and the split

A 52-minute podcast video is 3,120 seconds, which is over the 1,800-second source limit on Sume's video trim and video inspect, so it fails with source_duration_exceeded. Split it into two 26-minute files (1,560 seconds each) before you import them. With that split, six vertical clips of about 50 seconds each cost roughly $2.50 at the documented rates, plus inspect compute (read 2026-10-08).

The limits that decide the split

Three Sume docs pages set the ceiling. Video trim and video inspect both cap the source at 1,800 seconds. A single trim returns 0.2 to 900 seconds. Timeline 1.0 takes an audio spine of 1 to 1,800 seconds. None of these accepts a 52-minute file, so the splitting happens in your editor before upload, then each part goes in through POST /v1/media-imports.

Six clips from two halves

Pick three moments from each half. Each pass is the same: trim the range, render it to 1080x1920 on Timeline 1.0 with fit: blur or cover for a wide source, then burn captions. Detach each clip's audio first so it can serve as the spine. Keep each clip under a minute so the fixed $0.20 caption price applies. The transcript step is optional; it gives timestamps for choosing the cuts.

Notes on the transcript line

Video inspect bills the transcript at the public $0.01 per audio minute, but also captures the job's own container compute plus a platform fee, and that compute is not priced here. Send duration_seconds as a hint (maximum 600) if you want a smaller reservation; without it Sume reserves one minute. If you already know your cut points, skip the transcript and the total is $1.98. The detach line exists because a Timeline render needs an audio spine, and audio detach turns a clip's own track into a durable file for $0.01 per job.

curl -X POST https://api.sume.com/v1/video-trim \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SUME_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: ep42-part1-clip3" \
  -d '{
    "video_url": "https://media.sume.com/artifacts/artf_demo/ep42-part1.mp4",
    "start": 812.4,
    "duration": 50
  }'