Pop-Up Stoppers II, Better Video Recording Quality
Originall published August 24, 2002
Based on email I received after the AOL pop-up column was published, it would seem pop-up ads annoy more than AOL users. Some sample questions I received:
Q.I recently read in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette the instructions for eliminating pop up ads when using AOL. Is there a procedure for MSN users to accomplish this?
Name not given
Q.Reading your article regarding AOL and constant advertisement, does the alternative you spoke of/or are there other ways to avoid these problems if you don’t use AOL? Like the constant banners you get when using free internet access like Juno? Can anything be down with the constant interference?
Juanita Harper
A.Juanita, advertising revenue is what allows Juno to provide you with that free internet access. If it weren’t for the pop-ups, they would have to charge you. You may want to think about that before you attempt to eliminate them. If you still want to try, there are several programs available for free download that attempt to defeat pop-up advertising. I don’t know if they will work with Juno or MSN network-generated advertisements, but they should at least allow you to eliminate pop-ups that appear when you visit certain websites. The free programs can be found at the following websites:
www.panicware.com/popupstopper.html
www.filemix.net
www.analogx.com/contents/download/network/pow.htm
One of the best programs of this type is Adsubtract Pro, available at www.adsubtract.com, but it costs $29.95. You may want to try it if the free software doesn’t work for you.
Q.My recorded videos look worse than the original programs. Is there anything I can do to make them look better? Steve Barry, Pittsburgh
A.There isn’t much you can do with the tapes you have already recorded. What is happening is you are running into the limitations of the VHS format, which at its best records 240 lines of resolution. Broadcast television is 320 lines, satellite television is around 400, DVDs are 480, and the new HDTV broadcasts are either 720 or 1080. Years ago, the SVHS format was introduced as an improved form of VHS. SVHS, can record 400 lines with improved color purity, a big improvement over VHS. Unfortunately for consumers, SVHS VCRs were much more expensive than their VHS counterparts, and the special SVHS videotapes typically sell for more than $6 each. Fortunately, now you can enjoy the benefits of SVHS without investing in an expensive VCR and videotapes with SVHS-ET. SVHS-ET VCRs cost little more than a VHS VCR and record 400 lines of resolution on a VHS videotape. Many older VCRs may not be able to play back tapes recorded in SVHS-ET, but many newer ones have a feature called “Quasi-playback”, which will play SVHS and SVHS-ET tapes, but at the regular 240 lines of resolution. You can also record in VHS mode if the tape is intended for someone using VHS. If you use a digital satellite service like Direct TV or Dish Network, it’s worth your while to upgrade to an SVHS-ET machine if you do much recording. You will be astounded at how much better your recordings look, at minimal expense. A more expensive option is to buy a component DVD recorder, a home DVD player that also records on blank DVDs. It can also be used like a Tivo machine by using a re-recordable DVD-RW blank. DVD recorders are still quite expensive and the technology is new, so you would probably be better served using SVHS-ET for now and waiting for the DVD technology to mature and prices to come down.
