Prospective TV cable-cutters, even those with technical abilities, often are flummoxed in the face of choosing between all of the content options and new technologies available. Reliable sources of complete and neutral information in this space are hard to find, and the fun evaporates rapidly when you're faced with hours of stumbling through forums and strings of searches.

A quicker route to TV nirvana is to read J. and K. Fidler's book Cut the Cord, Ditch the Dish, and Take Back Control of Your TV from Iron Violin Press. Subtitled Fun, Tried-and-Tested, and Absolutely Legit Ways to Customize, Control and Change How You Watch TV, the Fidler team's book is a "time-saving, easily understood, roadmap for readers of all technical levels to be able to have fun, save money, and get the content and TV experience they want".

Cut the Cord provides "been-there-done-that" tips and explores the new technologies now available to cord-cutters. The nearly 400-page ebook gives basic information needed to get started, then builds on this knowledge to document a variety of simple to advanced DIY projects. One of those projects includes creating a DIY Linux OS-based DVR using MythTV and an Intel NUC.