Project with title clip renders to zero length

My project fails to render when there is a title clip in it. I stripped the project right down to one title clip[ (made in kdenlive editor) and one avi video clip. Removing the title clip allows the video to render, adding it back causes the renderer to reliably complete almost instantly and the video play then fsails with a message about zero length. My system is ...

kdenlive 0.9 using kde dev platform 4.8.2
melt 0,78
ububtu 12.04 LTS

4GB
64bit AMD dual core

I can't see reference to this kind of failure in the fora but I find it quite hard to search them.

Any help (or sympathy) gratefully received.