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.
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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Discuss: CNET to the Rescue: Cutting the Cord
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