diff --git a/subwave_nowplaying.star b/subwave_nowplaying.star
index ca4bb6e..3f1240e 100644
--- a/subwave_nowplaying.star
+++ b/subwave_nowplaying.star
@@ -591,12 +591,25 @@ GLITCH_STATE_POOL = [
 # (which can be up to STATIC_OVERLAY_END_SECONDS = 22s) because the
 # hue-shifted RGB-split bands this used to also drive were expensive
 # enough to push a real render past the 460KB device limit if sized
-# against the full window (measured 481KB at the time). Those bands are
-# gone now -- this only drives the base-art jitter, built on
-# render.Sequence + _glitch_shift (Padding), which compresses far
-# better: a real worst-case render at the *full* 22s now measures ~54KB.
-# So this now covers the whole window instead of a short burst within it.
-GLITCH_ACTIVE_SECONDS = STATIC_OVERLAY_END_SECONDS
+# against the full window (measured 481KB at the time). Those bands were
+# dropped for a while (jitter alone, measured ~54KB worst-case at the
+# full 22s) and this was widened to match -- but the bands have since
+# come back (see GLITCH_STATE_POOL above), and worst-case payload tracks
+# the *album art's own complexity*, not just whether bands are on: a
+# busy/high-entropy cover compresses far worse than typical art, since
+# every jitter/band/hue-shift state built from it ends up genuinely
+# distinct rather than mostly redundant. Measured against synthetic
+# noise art at the full 22s + strong zoom + random position: 354KB,
+# uncomfortably close to the Gen1 460KB limit for art this adversarial.
+#
+# Capped at 18s (not the full 22) as a deliberate safety margin against
+# that -- shorter than the max show_static window, so jitter/bands (and
+# the scanline sweep, which shares this duration -- see
+# SCANLINE_SWEEP_DURATION below) go static for the last few seconds of
+# an "ending" window on a very long remaining-time case, the same
+# tradeoff this was widened past once already, just re-accepted on
+# purpose this time for the payload margin.
+GLITCH_ACTIVE_SECONDS = 18
 _GLITCH_CYCLE_TICKS = GLITCH_STATES_PER_CYCLE * GLITCH_HOLD_TICKS + GLITCH_PAUSE_TICKS
 _GLITCH_TICKS_PER_SECOND = 20  # 1000ms / 50ms-per-tick
 GLITCH_REPEATS = int(GLITCH_ACTIVE_SECONDS * _GLITCH_TICKS_PER_SECOND / _GLITCH_CYCLE_TICKS) + 1