How can I remotely display images on my computer?

Question

What I Have: A laptop booted with Ubuntu and a stationary computer dual-booted with Ubuntu and Vista, both connected through a wireless ad-hoc network.

What I Want: I want a way to display images in fullscreen on my stationary, using my laptop as a "remote control". I want to be able to choose another picture at any time and have my stationary computer remain in fullscreen mode at all times. Preferably, I should also be able to display just an empty (black) screen. How can I arrange for this?

What I Have Tried:

• I have tried simply SSH:ing into my stationary computer and opening the image files using an image viewer, but all of the ones that I have tried (Eye of Gnome, Mirage, Gwenview, and others) open a new window for every new image. I don't know how to force them into using a single instance.

• I have tried using the VLC remote control command line interface, but apart from seeming somewhat unreliable (exiting with segmentation faults at one point), it also displays some images with a green border and forces me to pause playback in order for the image to remain on screen.

Bonus Question: In my final setup, I also need to play music through my stationary computer's speaker and have the ability to switch to another track at any point, like with the images. Preferably, I would like to control the images and the audio through the same interface. How can I best achieve this?

Answer 1

After hours of frustration, I finally found two tools that can do what I want: GQview and MPlayer.

GQview can be controlled interactively through the command line, as can MPlayer.

Update: GQView is now called Geeqie View and seems to load images faster than the old version.

Answer 2

You could try using xv with the -root option which basically sets the image as wallpaper. There's probably a command-line option in the other image viewers that would perform a similar function.