TV - Some help from TV experts - Please.

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markc

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WE have had an issue in our area with our local substation for about a year, between this and Eskom we have had an abnormal number of power outages. This seems to have reduced over the lockdown period. Anyway, we had a big electrical storm, than a power outage. The result was that my favourite TV gave up the ghost.

The TV was a Sony W850B 70". The TV had a great picture and all the features you could want. It cost R 43 000.00 new in February 2015.

Our insurance company "First for Woman" collected the TV to see if it could be repaired.

A week later they informed us that it was unrepairable and that they would replace it with a LG 70UM7350. A TV that costs R 14 998.00

This is my question and what I would greatly appreciate help with from the TV experts.

It is very difficult to compare this TV to a current available model for a number of reasons, the biggest being Sony is no longer available in SA.

From my limited experience there are a a few important aspects to look for in a TV, one is refresh rate. The Sony had a 120 HZ refresh rate and the LG is half of that at 60 Hz. The other is the blacks. From a review of the offered LG model:

"as its contrast ratio is mediocre and blacks tend to look like gray in the dark."
"Can't produce deep, uniform blacks."
"The LG UM7300 has a mediocre contrast ratio, which is expected of most IPS panels. Blacks will appear grayish when viewed in the dark, and unfortunately, there's no local dimming feature to improve dark room performance."
"Decent black uniformity, but there is noticeable backlight bleed, which is typical for IPS TVs."

If one looks at the price of new TV's in the 60 inch and bigger they range from High End - R R60K to R120K and up, to Middle of the range from R 30K to R60K and budget TV's from  R14K to R34K.

The insurance company want to replace like for like. They don't want you to better off then you were and don't want you to be worse off. I understand this but I feel the only thing that the offered TV has in common with my wonderful Sony is the 70 inch. Every other spec feels inferior. 

I know some TV prices have got lower in the past 4 years and 3 months and some new technology has improved the picture but I was very happy with the Sony TV and just don't want to be unhappy with it. I just want the same quality as I had.

I have to provide them for a quote/invoice for an "equivalent" TV and they will decide if they agree.

I want to send them this together with an "expert" opinion on why it is equivalent.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
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