jpg puzzle: shared folder vs online

I need some help to solve this puzzle, ultimately I want my TV to display snapshots from an IP camera. I've made some progress and gathered some info but I'm puzzled.

Here are the details:
- I have two images: snapshot.jpg and testsnapshot.jpg
- snapshot.jpg is 1280x800 and comes directly from an IP camera
- testsnapshot.jpg is 1024x640, originated as 1280x800 from the same IP camera but was uploaded to flickr then downloaded from flickr, so flickr has reduced the size and possibly done something else.

- both images are in a local folder on the serviio platform
- both images are also copied to a webserver, where I also have a small rss/xml file that references the images so I don't need a serviio plugin

If I setup serviio Library/shared folders to point to the local copies, I can see both images in the serviio media browser and on the TV. I'm happy.

If I setup serviio online sources with source type = RSS/Atom and point to my rss/xml file on the webserver, I can see testsnapshot.jpg in the serviio media browser and on my TV. However I cannot see snapshot.jpg in the serviio media browser or on my TV. Not so happy.

It looks like serviio treats the same media files differently depending if they come from a local shared folder or an online source.

I'm not sure what to try next. I can get further detail on the images if that will help but I don't know what tool to use to examine the images.

I thought transcoding might help but not so sure now. Maybe there is something I can put into the rss/xml file that will fix it.

Any ideas?


Here is my simple rss/xml file, it works with testsnapshot.jpg but not snapshot.jpg:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?>
<rss version="2.0">
<!-- http://www.w3schools.com/rss/rss_item.asp -->
<channel>
<title>WEBCAMERA Snapshots</title>
<link>http://mywebsite.com</link>
<description>The webcam at my place</description>
<item>
<title>Recent Snapshot</title>
<link>http://mywebsite.com/testsnapshot.jpg</link>
<description>Cached snapshot</description>
<enclosure url="http://mywebsite.com/testsnapshot.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
</item>
</channel>
</rss>

This is probably a stupid question, but you've already tried changing the xml to include an additional <item> node which points to snapshot.jpg? If so, can you post that xml?

Good question, actually the way I'm testing is with two separate xml files.
One is the one I've listed and the other is the same file with "testsnapshot.jpg" replaced with "snapshot.jpg".
exact same file, just the image file name is changed. I don't think its a typo, I have a totally different xml file that I tested same way. but I'll check.

ok, I created this xml file and serviio media browser only shows "testsnapshot.jpg"

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?>
<rss version="2.0">
<!-- http://www.w3schools.com/rss/rss_item.asp -->
<channel>
<title>WEBCAMERA Snapshots</title>
<link>http://mywebsite.com</link>
<description>The webcam at my place</description>
<item>
<title>Recent Snapshot</title>
<link>http://mywebsite.com/snapshot.jpg</link>
<description>Cached snapshot</description>
<enclosure url="http://mywebsite.com/snapshot.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
</item>
<item>
<title>Test Snapshot</title>
<link>http://mywebsite.com/testsnapshot.jpg</link>
<description>This one works</description>
<enclosure url="http://mywebsite.com/testsnapshot.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
</item>
</channel>
</rss>

found a way to make it work, discovered this along the way:

serviio does not handle a 1280x800 .jpg from my IP camera (16:10 aspect ratio)
I was able to change the IP camera to put out a 1280x720 .jpg (16:9) and serviio media browser now shows it and I can see it on the TV.

this problem did not show up if the images are located in a local folder.
the problem with 1280x800 does show up if using an online RSS/Atom feed.

Now I can see IP camera snapshots on the TV.