Raspbmc

Decided to put my 512 meg ram RPi to the test, so I downloaded and installed the raspbmc image. Of course the first thing you want to do is to setup the hardware including setting the screen size. If you already have an lcd screen, that may not be necessary. Secondly you want to start installing different interfaces. For example I installed the interface for "Good eats". Looked like they only had the episodes meant for this part of the year.

Even on an old composite Commodore monitor, I was surprised at the clarity. There are still some other tweaks to make, but out of the box was actually pretty good. A zillion times better that my Netgear ntv300 video streaming box. The are always removing services and the few left are mostly pay for. In any case, The RPi with raspbmc.more than makes up for it anyway.

You may want to reset your router so that in case your lease is about up there will not be any interference.