I just installed a new image last night. I tried the later November and December snapshots but could not get my MDs to properly boot. I used this one last night:
http://linuxmce.iptp.org/snapshots/LinuxMCE-8.10-23388-i386.iso which is snapshot 23388 from November 1.
After burning at the lowest speed as you said you did, put the dvd in what will be your core and let it boot. Select your language from the screen that displays and then select ONLY AND ALWAYS the LMCE install option. I hesitate to say the last option incase it changes position and someone reads this later, but right now it is the last option presented.
This will go through what appears to be a typical KUbuntu installation. Type in as it applies to you and reboot (taking out the DVD when prompted). KUbuntu will load and prompt you for the username and password you specified. Log into the system and go to a terminal (IIRC it is in Applications -> System -> Terminal).
At the terminal, the first thing I do is set the root password for the system:
sudo passwd
It will prompt you for your current password and then ask you to set a new password and confirm the new password.
Then, login as root and do an update- I do apt-get update twice because it seems like the packages are not always grabbed the first time... but that's just me. Obviously hit enter after each line:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
Approve all of the packages where asked (yesterday it was only (IIRC again) 1 package after apt-get upgrade and 4 packages after apt-get dist-upgrade.
From there, click on the LMCE install button on your desktop. For me it is essentially the only item on the desktop and is a white rectangle. This will open a terminal window and ask you for your password (I believe it is root (su) password).
Then wait. Go watch a move. Go to bed. Go do something that doesn't involve playing with the install. When you return (1.5 hours (or so) later) it will say something about the first stage of the install is complete and you need to reboot.
I reboot the system and again after waiting, am prompted for a black screen (depending on how you connect your display to your core, you maybe prompted for the initial AV Wizard) Sometimes I hear the beep, other times I don't.... when I'm convinced I have waited long enough for the AV Wizard to load, I press "1" on the keyboard and wait for the AV Wizard screen to appear. You will know what it looks like because here is a screen shot of what you will see:
http://wiki.linuxmce.com/index.php/AV_Wizard_Step_by_StepFollow the onscreen directions and wait for all of the packages to download. If you get to the end before the packages all download WAIT!! Do not force a reload, let everything download. All you have to do is click the button on the very last page of the setup and a blue screen will appear. It will either say "reloading router" or "device is busy, do you want to force reload". If you get the reloading router, you're golden and after a couple minutes and screen flashes, you will be presented with the UI you selected (hoping your video card plays well with your selection, if not you're going to have to rerun the AV Wizard, but that's for another post). If not, and you are presented with the "device is busy" or whatever equivalent it says, DO NOT force the reload.... just wait for it to get done. A while back Thom (again IIRC) added display boxes to the upper right of the screen that tells you what the system is doing.
I will add a caveat- I cannot get a display out of one of my MDs for the setup wizard. It is a laptop and I have been told to try a DVI option... it doesn't work. So to get around this I just connect a LCD to the VGA output and complete the setup via that screen. (post script- you will need to run /usr/pluto/bin/Diskless_CreateTBZ.sh before your MDs will load- but again will save this for a later post).
HTH