InfoPath Dev

I am trying to display pictures from a SP List upon a drop down selection. But first, the issues I am having are:

1. when nusing a rich textbox it displays the URL no the image itself.

2.  I tried to use the direct URL link to the image in a picture control but I get  an error saying" Only base64 encoded binary data allowed"

havent tried to use html code yet. I can do this with code easily, but I am trying to figure it out with out code. dont want to allow code just for this.

I know I need to pass the value of the drop down in the URL but I cant get this to work with just a static URL link.

Try changing your picture field to a hyperlink (anyURI) data type. Your picture control will then display the image from the URL passed in by the dropdown selection.