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GLENVIEW, Ill. (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- If you got a new TV for the holidays or plan to buy one before the Super Bowl, you may already have NextGen TV built in.
It’s sometimes called ATSC 3.0 and is a new generation of digital TV. Carl Prouty, a technologist at Abt Electronics, said the tech means not only brighter colors and a better picture, but improvements in audio as well.
"Sometimes you're watching a TV show and a commercial comes on and it's way louder than the program you were just watching," he explained. "Part of what is beneficial of this technology is it corrects that so you're not seeing those big fluctuations in volume."
Prouty said overall viewers should get "a more immersive experience" when watching a show. "There's going to be more data for you to access, so there's going to be more interactivity with the televsion."
He said it’s not always clear from the labels, but NextGen TV's are becoming more common.
"Sony right now offers the widest variety of TV's that have that feature. You can find it this year in a couple of the LG models and then Samsung has a couple of models as well," Prouty added.
More brands are expected to produce TV's with the tech next year, but you don’t have to buy a new one. Prouty said you can buy a tuner box to receive the improved signal once it becomes available in Chicago.
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