Thoughts on Media Tile options?

I agree they are an eyesore. A uniform weather forecast tile would be nice. And thanks for watching!

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I just switched over from another product. The way they did zoom is when you clicked on the tile, it would go full screen. It would then allow you to x out of it.

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That’s what I originally thought he meant and it’s on my hit list. More like a traditional ‘lightbox’ implementation. :grinning:

Any update on allowing the tile to go to full screen when clicked on? Example Weather tile.image

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We have prioritized it in our sprint planning. If all goes well, it will likely make it in the release after the next.

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Question about Media Tiles:
I must be doing something wrong. My media tiles just show up as blank. I don’t understand because when I select the URL that I put in the media tile, and just go to it, it shows up perfectly.

Can you share a sample URL?

Edit: If you have the tile set to auto refresh, some providers have trouble with the ‘cache buster’ parameter that gets added to the URL. If I remember right correctly, AccuWeather is one of the sites that doesn’t like the auto refresh.

Hi Jack,
What the URLs you have in those tiles? Are they pointing to a medial file such as MJPG, GIF, JPG, or PNG type?

Here is a sample url (amcrest camera):
http://userid:pswd@192.168.1.55:1025/cgi-bin/mjpg/video.cgi?channel=0&subtype=1

Hi Jack,
What’s your camera model? I couldn’t find that URL “cgi-bin/mjpg/” in iSpy’s database (a popular webcam url info resource).

Some browsers like Chrome have started blocking the embedding of username and passwords at the start of URLs when embedded into another page.

This means that you can access the resource directly with the username/password at the beginning of the URL, but it won’t work when embedded in another page like SharpTools.

There are a few common workarounds:

  1. If you have the option of using another browser, try a different browser. (Chrome is one of the browsers to have recently blocked this)

  2. Check to see if your camera has another method for embedding the username and password. Some cameras have the option of putting the username and password in the URL query. For example, the iSpyConnect Camera Database has a number of other Amcrest models which appear to take the username and password as part of the URL:

    Connect to Amcrest cameras

  3. Disable the username and password for the camera within your network (if it’s available within your camera)

  4. Use a dedicated NVR software like Blue Iris which can aggregate feeds from multiple cameras (and has options for disabling username/password for LAN only)

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It’s an Amcrest IP3M-HX2. (I think that it also says “IPM-HX1” which is the “common” model number.

@Jack_Weinberg check out my comment above. Based on the URL you provided it’s likely Chrome blocking the embedding of a resources with a http://username:password@camera/ format. There are several workarounds noted in the post above which may be helpful. :slight_smile:

I also created a help article in case other people run into the same issue:

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It appears that is the case - Chrome is blocking.
So, my next alternative is to use the multicast feature of surveillance station which I have running on my Synology NAS.

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From what I can tell based on a quick search of the Synology docs, it looks like the Multicast feature is for sharing an RTSP stream with multiple users simultaneously.

We are looking for either a JPEG or MJPEG feed. It looks like their API has support for it based on what I’m finding online. Here’s a forum post with some details.

https://forum.synology.com/enu/viewtopic.php?t=78491

From that post, it sounds like the image snapshot URL for Synology Surveillance Station is in the format:
http://diskstation_ip:5000/webapi/SurveillanceStation/camera.cgi?api=SYNO.SurveillanceStation.Camera&method=GetSnapshot&version=1&cameraId=2

And the video feed URL was in the following format:
http://diskstation_ip:5000/webapi/SurveillanceStation/streaming.cgi?api=SYNO.SurveillanceStation.Streaming&method=LiveStream&version=1&cameraId=2

But he had to specifically change the setting for that camera in Surveillance Station - on the video tab, he changed the format to MJPEG. (Otherwise it was defaulting to a format that couldn’t be embedded in another page)

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Josh: That seems to have done the trick!
So, what’s happening is that the camera is “broadcasting” in H.264, and my Synology NAS ,Surveillance Station is modifying that “broadcast” to be in HTTP/MJPEG format, which can be picked up and displayed by SharpTools.
(Please forgive my rather simplistic approach to understanding what’s going on, behind the scenes).
From my research, it also appears that TinyCam (if it was running continuously) would also be doing a similar activity.
Thanks again for all your assistance.

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I want to start by saying that I’m new, but extremely happy with sharptools.io!

I would like to join in on requesting horizontal position and zoom functions for media. This would be especially useful for weather forecast and radar images, but I also have a camera in my entry that I would like to focus on the window in my front door… instead of choosing between squeezing a 1080p image into a little tile or making a huge tile and losing real estate for others.

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Today’s platform update includes new Media Tile tap actions (eg. Fullscreen) as well as several other awesome feature enhancement based on community feedback. Thanks again for all the suggestions and your ongoing support!

Announcement: Color Control, Hyperlink and Media Tile Options, New Icons, and more

And if you are enjoying SharpTools, don’t forget to leave a recommendation on Facebook or upgrade to premium!

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In your gif which opens the media tile, is there any way to have it scale to 100% or fit the entire screen? I can’t seem to find the css tag that controls that.

Continuing the thread here: Expand camera to full view when clicked - #5 by sharptools501