Very Low Budget HTPC

[Aristotelian]

I am thinking about building or buying a very low budget HTPC to connect to my living room TV/stereo. Here are my requirements:

I will use the device to watch streaming video and digitized music and video. I watch a lot of shows on Hulu but do not want to subscribe to Hulu+ (so most of the set-top devices like AppleTV and Roku will not work for me). I would like Hulu to run without hiccups as it currently does on my Celeron D Dell.

Must have connectors for "regular" and HDTV. I currently have an old non-HD set with no immediate plans to replace, but would like to have the HDTV option for the future.

Low power consumption and capacity for HDD storage would be preferable but not essential.

Here are the options I am currently considering:

1) Raspberry Pi with HMBC or similar media OS.

2) This Android device:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813181041&name=Motherboard-CPU-VGA-Combo

3) AppleTV hacked with HMBC.

4) Some other pre-built set-top device hacked with HMBC.

I have never built an HTPC. What direction should I go and why? Thanks!

 

[rdc85]

how low is "very low budget" ?

since everybody "low" is diffrent from each other..

 

[Aristotelian]

I would love it to be under $150. I am also inclined to build-your-own but don't have any experience with these devices. Any recommendations? Specifically is the Raspberry Pi or Avatar APC powerful enough to play HD video?