SmugMug Image Files On Digital Picture Frames

CG806

Hi all,

I acquired a digital picture frame this weekend, and am enjoying putting my photos on display for my family and friends.

Since it has only an 8 inch screen, I didn't intend to load the original image files direct from my camera on it, since they would take up unnecessary space. I intended to download the "medium" size files from my SmugMug site (since most of the pictures I wanted were already uploaded there) and save some time shrinking the files myself.

I quickly found that images downloaded from SmugMug in any size other than "original" show up with very poor resolution on my digital frame. They come out blocky and pixelated. I can view the files stored on the frame on my PC (via USB), and they look fine. If I spend the extra space and load the "original" files (downloaded from SmugMug) on the frame, they look excellent. I can also take those same "original" files and shrink them with my photo software to smaller size, and they also look great on the frame. The file properties look the same (bit depth, dpi, etc) for all the files, yet they display with different results.

Anyone run into this or similar problems before? Any ideas what could be causing this? It's not a huge deal to resize them myself, I'm just more curious what the cause could be.

jfriend

How many pixels does your digital frame have in each direction?

What sizes besides original did you try from Smugmug?

mlee

CG806 wrote:

Hi all,

I acquired a digital picture frame this weekend, and am enjoying putting my photos on display for my family and friends.

Since it has only an 8 inch screen, I didn't intend to load the original image files direct from my camera on it, since they would take up unnecessary space. I intended to download the "medium" size files from my SmugMug site (since most of the pictures I wanted were already uploaded there) and save some time shrinking the files myself.

I quickly found that images downloaded from SmugMug in any size other than "original" show up with very poor resolution on my digital frame. They come out blocky and pixelated. I can view the files stored on the frame on my PC (via USB), and they look fine. If I spend the extra space and load the "original" files (downloaded from SmugMug) on the frame, they look excellent. I can also take those same "original" files and shrink them with my photo software to smaller size, and they also look great on the frame. The file properties look the same (bit depth, dpi, etc) for all the files, yet they display with different results.

Anyone run into this or similar problems before? Any ideas what could be causing this? It's not a huge deal to resize them myself, I'm just more curious what the cause could be.

I've seen similar with two separate model frames - one a Philips and the other a Samsung.

In my case, I wasn't even able to get either of the frames to even recognize any files downloaded from SmugMug other than the originals. Both frames told me all of the 'resized' files I downloaded were corrupt or unrecognizable. However, all of the files opened in Windows and PS CS3 just fine.

I haven't gone back and played with them in a few weeks, but it was baffling to me.

Mike

CG806

jfriend wrote:

How many pixels does your digital frame have in each direction?

What sizes besides original did you try from Smugmug?

The frame is 800 x 600 pixels.

I tried everything from thumbnail to 2XL, and none looked any better than the other. It's strange that I can download the original size, and resize it myself to the same dimensions as the other sizes available for download and have it look good.

jfriend

CG806 wrote:

The frame is 800 x 600 pixels.

I tried everything from thumbnail to 2XL, and none looked any better than the other. It's strange that I can download the original size, and resize it myself to the same dimensions as the other sizes available for download and have it look good.

That is odd. It must be something related to the way Smugmug makes it's JPEGs and the way the resizing algorithm in the frame works. Smugmug's JPEGs are optimized for one purpose only (display on the web in a typical browser) so maybe the frame wants something different.

chuckklr04

Smugmug photos will not work on a pandigital frame. Work on a GinniNii frame although it has poor resoultion.

Anybody know how to make the Pandigital accept Smug?

Thinking of swiching photo service if I don't get it to work.

Andy

chuckklr04 wrote:

Smugmug photos will not work on a panadigital frame. Work on a GinniNii frame although it has poor resoultion.

Anybody know how to make the Pandigital accept Smug?

Thinking of swiching photo service if I don't get it to work.

Got a link to the specs on that frame?

chuckklr04

Andy wrote:

Got a link to the specs on that frame?

Just did a search.but got nothing.

Model pan811-b
256mb internal memory on box (but user's guide say's 128mb)
res 800x600 pixel
Standard jpeg,mpeg, mpeg1,mpeg4 and mp3

olegos

CG806 wrote:

I tried everything from thumbnail to 2XL, and none looked any better than the other.

Jpegs can have embedded thumbnails. This sounds like the frame can't show the jpeg image itself, and is just showing the thumbnail.

Quicksand

I can confirm and also add . . .
I have a Kodak EasyShare SV811 digital photo frame, and it too will NOT recognize SmugMug photos, unless I load-and-re-save them using an image editing program before putting them on the memory card for the frame. This works, but I don't like it because (1) it's an extra step and I'm lazy, and (2) I'm re-recompressing the images unnecessarily.

I also recently tried to use a downloaded SmugMug photo as an upload to the Costco Photo Center (hey, they had a photo Christmas card design I wanted). Same problem. Upload resulted in "FileTypeError." Load-and-re-save in an image editor, try the upload again, and success.

Weird.

chuckklr04

Quicksand wrote:

I have a Kodak EasyShare SV811 digital photo frame, and it too will NOT recognize SmugMug photos, unless I load-and-re-save them using an image editing program before putting them on the memory card for the frame. This works, but I don't like it because (1) it's an extra step and I'm lazy, and (2) I'm re-recompressing the images unnecessarily.

I also recently tried to use a downloaded SmugMug photo as an upload to the Costco Photo Center (hey, they had a photo Christmas card design I wanted). Same problem. Upload resulted in "FileTypeError." Load-and-re-save in an image editor, try the upload again, and success.

Weird.

Makes you wonder if SM changes the code to force you to buy their other services.

devbobo

chuckklr04 wrote:

Smugmug photos will not work on a pandigital frame. Work on a GinniNii frame although it has poor resoultion.

Anybody know how to make the Pandigital accept Smug?

Thinking of swiching photo service if I don't get it to work.

Chuck,

How do you config the frame to access your SmugMug account ? Using a feed url ?

If so, please give me a sample url to have a look at.

Thanks,

David

chuckklr04

devbobo wrote:

Chuck,

How do you config the frame to access your SmugMug account ? Using a feed url ?

If so, please give me a sample url to have a look at.

Thanks,

David

Right click,save picture as.

direct from Smug. http://chuckklr04.smugmug.com/photos/191360502_PbJPv-M.jpg


Sent it to memory card. Placed card in frame.

devbobo

chuckklr04 wrote:

Right click,save picture as.

direct from Smug. http://chuckklr04.smugmug.com/photos/191360502_PbJPv-M.jpg


Sent it to memory card. Placed card in frame.

My guess is that you aren't loading photo that has enough resolution for the photo frame...try loading...

http://chuckklr04.smugmug.com/photos/191360502_PbJPv-L.jpg

or

http://chuckklr04.smugmug.com/photos/191360502_PbJPv-XL.jpg

chuckklr04

devbobo wrote:

My guess is that you aren't loading photo that has enough resolution for the photo frame...try loading...

http://chuckklr04.smugmug.com/photos/191360502_PbJPv-L.jpg

or

http://chuckklr04.smugmug.com/photos/191360502_PbJPv-XL.jpg

We always use the highest resolution on the camera.


update


Found the same pics on the wife's laptop. Forgot that we were backing them up that way. They worked fine and look great.

I'm a little peeved with SM right now. My subsription is up for renewal too. Gonna have to make a decison soon.

chuckklr04

Andy wrote:

Got a link to the specs on that frame?

Thank's for the help. NOT!:cry

ashishpandey

Progressive JPEG?
I am just guessing here, but does SM generate progressive JPEGs? I recall seeing some images rendering with detail showing up slowly when my internet connection was slow last month. If they are indeed progressive JPEGs, some devices may not handle them well (though they are good for web browsing)

Anyone from SM can verify this?

wayne861

chuckklr04 wrote:

Right click,save picture as.

direct from Smug. http://chuckklr04.smugmug.com/photos/191360502_PbJPv-M.jpg


Sent it to memory card. Placed card in frame.

Hi,

The way you are doing it, you are saving a small image, too small for use in your frame. Either use owner save if you are logged in or open the original size image and then right click. That will give you an image large enough to use in your photo frame.

Wayne

chuckklr04

wayne861 wrote:

Hi,

The way you are doing it, you are saving a small image, too small for use in your frame. Either use owner save if you are logged in or open the original size image and then right click. That will give you an image large enough to use in your photo frame.

Wayne

I was logged in and opened each pic to the biggest one.

Quicksand

Yes!

ashishpandey wrote:

I am just guessing here, but does SM generate progressive JPEGs? I recall seeing some images rendering with detail showing up slowly when my internet connection was slow last month. If they are indeed progressive JPEGs, some devices may not handle them well (though they are good for web browsing)?

Ashish has it!

I hadn't thought of this -- frankly, progressive JPEGs are not that unusual or difficult to deal with! But I did an experiment to confirm.

It turns out my Kodak picture frame DOES NOT LIKE progressive JPEGs, and it wouldn't surprise me to find out that the Costco Photo Center has the same problem.

Fortunately, it's easy solved, and losslessly too.

In Linux, the jpegtran program (part of the libjpeg-tools package in my distro) will rewrite the files from progressive to baseline:

jpegtran input.jpg > output.jpg

. . . simple as that.

And if you're a Windows person, XnView (Edit menu > Metadata > Clean, then select any item in the "Remove..." dialog box) will do the trick. If you select multiple files in the thumbnail window before doing this, it will rewrite all of them in one operation.

Thanks, Ashish, for smacking me with the clue-by-four.

anderiv

FYI everyone - Smugmug only uses progressive jpg for the resized versions of your picture. If you use "Owner Save" or one of the other album downloaders (SmugDAV, Album Fetcher, etc.), you'll get non-progressive versions of the files. In fact, if you'd do a checksum on the downloaded images, you'd see that they're exactly the same as when you uploaded them.

chuckklr04

anderiv wrote:

FYI everyone - Smugmug only uses progressive jpg for the resized versions of your picture. If you use "Owner Save" or one of the other album downloaders (SmugDAV, Album Fetcher, etc.), you'll get non-progressive versions of the files. In fact, if you'd do a checksum on the downloaded images, you'd see that they're exactly the same as when you uploaded them.

Thanks for help.

Too bad someone from Smugmug did not jump in and help.

Andy

chuckklr04 wrote:

Makes you wonder if SM changes the code to force you to buy their other services.

Anyone who knows us knows we don't roll this way, not for 6 years going.

Andy

chuckklr04 wrote:

Thanks for help.

Too bad someone from Smugmug did not jump in and help.

Hi, devbobo is one of our sorcerers and he sure tried to help

Dgrin is a community forum - the help comes from all sorts of people, SmugMug and SmugMug Customers. Heck, even non-SmugMug customers.

When you need help asap, directly from SmugMug - you simply have to write us at our help desk and get access ot our Support Heroes 365 days a year, days, nights, weekends, holidays, around the clock

CG806

Progressive JPEG's certainly makes a good deal of sense for this issue.

I wish I would have thought about that before. I guess it's a "curse" of having high speed internet. . .the progressive load isn't very noticeable.

Thanks everyone for the extra brain power.