FPDI and CodeIgniter, cannot read PDFs

[eluser]tjstalcup[/eluser]
I have made my PDFs readable, 444, and I have tried putting the PDFs outside of the root directory and using:

Code:

$pdf->SetSourceFile(base_url()."businesscard.pdf");

this bit of code just keeps the browser spinning, not loading anything

If I put the PDF in the same directory as the script:

Code:

$pdf->SetSourceFile("businesscard.pdf");

it says FPDF error: Cannot open businesscard.pdf !

Now, if I take out that line, it generates the PDF fine. I have been using FPDI/FPDF for 2 years before using CI and never had this issue. Is there a configuration setting inside of CI that would allow me to import PDFs?

Thanks.