im running on version 1.3.2.1 but on my client's server they had magento 1.3.0 so my previous code to display images for my local copy:

echo $this->helper('catalog/image')->init($_product)->resize(163, 100);

does not work on the client's installation

looking at the results returned by their magento, ver 1.3.0 actually returns a url although it points to the skin's media folder

is there a way to get the absolute image path for the image? or should i make changes somewhere else that would tell magento that the media directory should be on the root?