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CNET to the Rescue: Cutting the Cord

Sick of those high cable or satellite TV bills? CNET's David Katzmaier explains how he replaced his TV service with a patchwork of hardware and streaming Internet content.

Rafe Needleman Former Editor at Large
Rafe Needleman reviews mobile apps and products for fun, and picks startups apart when he gets bored. He has evaluated thousands of new companies, most of which have since gone out of business.
Rafe Needleman
2 min read

It's time to cut the cord: to dump your expensive cable or satellite connection and replace it with over-the-air or Internet services, or lower-priced, possibly, or a la carte streaming. We have a special guest today, CNET's David Katzmaier from the New York office, who's been doing exactly this, and writing up his experiences in his ongoing feature, "Diary of a cord cutter."

If you have a tech question for CNET to the Rescue, e-mail rescue@cnet.com or call us to get on the next show: 877-438-6688. No question is too basic.

Watch this: CNET to the Rescue Ep.#27: Cutting the Cord

Podcast



Episode 27: Cutting the cord

David's hands-on experience

David's diary: Day 1; Week 1; Week 2.

Why cut the cord?

What did you do?

Discuss the Spousal Acceptance Factor. Discuss ease of use vs. a cable box.

Equipment needed, and what you recommend.

How fragile is the setup?

Content. And what about sports?

Is it worth it?

Talk about these options: Game consoles, Boxee, Google TV, Apple TV, Roku.

Discuss these content sources: Hulu, Vudu, Amazon, Netflix. Useful story: Lifehacker's guide to online TV shows.

Your questions answered

Richard: Do I need networkability in my TV?

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Vernon Parker in Japan: Long-time listener and I love your podcast. Been listening to it for the last few years in various countries as I am in the Navy. My question is about NAS Storage. Can I connect an external hard drive to my Apple Time Machine and use it to stream all my media files to all my computers hooked up to it?

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Adam Jakowenko: I was wondering if you can explain the whole CableCARD technology which is supposedly on its way out, vs "AllVid" adapter that is supposedly the next big thing (although I hear that's debatable). I know there was an FCC rule recently passed that is supposed to be more fair to people who use CableCARD but that seems to not take effect until mid 2011.

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