Raspberry Pi

On the topic of alternatives still.. the other units I was looking at which may be more powerful but seem to be plagued with heat issues were the little usb google-tv devices. I mean look at this thing.. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009A6P2VC/ref=s9_simh_gw_p23_d0_i6?pf_rd_… (ugly url complements of Amazon. Apologies compliments of me) but it's a USB dual core ARM computer, 1GB RAM and 4GB ROM with hdmi, wifi, usb, etc .. and it's $43 shipped. Serious competition to the Pi specs. This is really the first I've heard of these (probably read about it in the news before they came to fruition (awesome raspberry pun there!)) but there are a BUNCH for that similar price range and free shipping from Amazon. Like I said, the problem is the size being too new for the technology and I see lots of folks saying it didn't work or overheated. Pretty common with new tech though but amazing for the price. Alternatively if we're just doing microcontroller intros to kids which I sorta think is relevant, Lady ADA released something she calls a Floria https://www.adafruit.com/products/659 (and I really am confused why she sorta just ripped off but I'm happy she gave credit to Leah Buechley?s http://web.media.mit.edu/~leah/LilyPad/ ) but it's what we should probably start calling YAAB (yet another arduino board) but same thing. An open circuitry interface to microcontroller programming with a bunch of add-on devices. The only part I see as good for the Pi is I don't see many overheating reviews. But I hear so many comments about chipset issues it makes me nervous. I'm really just interested in some low power streaming device that can either play videos I've converted myself or host a dlna server for my devices that can then do the playing themselves but I'm not sure what out there is powerful enough. I and other friends have already seen a few corporate devices fail to perform as advertised. I (for some stupid reason (price and a temporary lapse in judgement)) last went out to buy a faster Linksys router a few years ago and was going for one with a USB jack thinking I could set up an external drive to the router and host files or use it's dlna itself but I ended up buying a Netgear with the same ability instead. It worked sort of but once the number of files on the drive get to a certain count I guess it doesn't have enough memory to update the database and stops listing new media on the dlna server. It used to crash the router when that happened and lots of complaints in the forums and firmware updates from the vendor later it never really was resolved. Unusable for what I bought it for and disappointing. Now adays I KNOW a computer can handle it but I'd still like a lower power device near the TV as a preferred method than a server just for videos. I thought the Pi might do the trick. One of these google devices might too but I can't afford to keep tinkering around with failed promises.