I purchased an MX about 2 years ago. At the time the linux was very 'jerky' I now want to use this unitto create a 'smart TV' I am not an experienced linux user. I have read many posts on this forum and the more you read the more confusing it becomes. Can somebody point me to an image that makes best use of the hardware ie. wifi, graphics etc.

Hi David.
If you want a stable linux distro that makes use of Efika's hardware and still gets updates, I strongly suggest you to look at this one: http://www.powerdeveloper.org/forums/vi ... f=7&t=2262
It has hardware video decoding acceleration, at least, and it seems to be the most usable among all of the available.

I suggest you to read that thread entirely and update Iceweasel the same way I did and get XFCE too (depending on how much you like or dislike GNOME). I can try to answer any questions you may have.

However, Honestly, I doubt that you can get a decent smart TV out of this thing. If the distro appeared to be jerky to you 2 years ago, I doubt it would be any better right now. The hardware is obsolete at this point and it will not be able to play 1080p videos, only 720p with hardware acceleration. Of course, you may try it just to see how it will turn out, but don't expect much out of it. Right now this device is mostly for playing out with it and linux, but there isn't much of practical use for it.

If you want a good PC-based smart TV go for some x86-based PCs in small cases, they'll do the job perfectly and they don't cost much now. And you can use any normal linux distro there or Windows if you prefer it. There is CuBox too, but given that you're new to linux/ARM world, I'm not sure it's the best choice for you.