A service contract essentially is an insurance policy, with you guessing that you'll need to spend more in repairs than the service contract costs. They typically are huge moneymakers for the companies offering them. Your best bet is to get a copy of the service contract and find out what it covers and what it does not cover. If your TV is likely to be a victim of abuse from kids or pets, see if that kind of damage is excluded. Find out if the service is in your home or if you have to truck the TV to a service facility -- and find out where they are. Find out if there are odd requirements like annual inspections or other likely exclusions (lightning damage, etc.). Then take the warranty that comes with the TV anyway and figure out what the service contract adds. Frankly, I've never had one on which I made out. So I tend not to buy them anymore. Oh, and BTW, this may be too late for you if you walked out of the store with the TV, but your cost for a service contract is negotiable. See if they'll offer it to you for less or even throw it in.

I know this thread is a bit old...but anyhow... Years ago I used a Miro DC10+ and a government surplus EVO-9850 that I got for a cheap price. That was the best Hi8 VTR ever made. Got very good results. The resolution figure on the DC10+ sounds low these days, but the truth is Hi8's true resolution wasn't that "Hi". There was a UK documentary shot on Hi8 in the 90s whose look on DVD amazed me, but then I remember PAL and SECAM always looked better. Especially SECAM, the first time I was in Paris in 1993 I couldn't believe it, it looked like high-def or what someone back then would have thought high-def would have looked like. They are higher resolution, lower framerate and better color. So, the DVD probably looked good because they used a top of the line Snell and Wilcox Alchemist Phase Correlation FFT to convert it to NTSC. Not because Hi8 was a good format. So, the point of all that techno-babble that you didn't need is that the capture device _these_ days DOES NOT matter. Unless it's a real piece of junk, it will have sufficient bandwidth to capture the NTSC Hi8 signal. So get the cheaper one if its specs are full D1 which they probably are. The concern is, if your CCD-TRV98 is still working, that's an absolute miracle. So, don't spend much on the capture device, but be prepared to have someone recap (replace surface mount caps) on your Sony when it stops working. Because with the workload of transferring video to computer, it will. This post was edited by davidrt28 on Wed, Dec 17, 14 at 1:33

cheerful1, The reason why you are seeing the two horizontal black bands (one on to, one on the bottom), is because the TV is set to one of the screen modes available. read the instruction on page 21, and on page 29. First try the following (look at the remote's buttons) page 21: TV on, watch a show. Now look at the WIDE button, which is located just below the POWER button. Press and release the WIDE button repeatedly, and see what happens to the screen. (Keep in mind that if the TV is receiving a 720p or 1080i signal, Normal can't be selected). The screen should go from wide to wide zoom, normal, full, and zoom. You can also change the Screen Settings (page 29), from Wide, to Normal. See if this works for you. To change the setting to you liking, you can select "Custom." In the custom mode you have more control of the screen than on the rest to the settings. And finally, if you want to watch DVD's and provide the best signal possible from a DVD to the TV, read my post relating to signal upconverting via HDMI above. I know that digital cable is great, but to watch a DVD movie HDMI connection to the TV is the best from the following: best = HDMI, second best = component cables (red, green, and blue plugs), third = S-Video cable, worst = the yellow, white,and red cables. As the BlueRay and top of the line DVD players belome more popular, the existing DVD players/recorders (with signal upconverting via HDMI) prices will drop, and that's when I will buy one of these. But for the moment, I have a $99.00 DVD player with signal upconverting via HDMI, and the DVD movie signal quality is great. Since I don't have cable, i enjoy watching movies from this DVD player. The signal is crystal clear.

Thanks, all! The cnet seemed to like this set. There is too much choice and so many variables. Worse than buying a pair of shoes -- and much more expensive! I've ordered the Sony 40" (KLD40EX500) from Abt, where we've bought all our appliances for many years. They will deliver it Tuesday, connect it to all our gizmo's except the Harmony remote, and cart away the very heavy old set. This came to a tad under $1000 including tax. We have the HD-DVR box and roof dish from DirecTV so that doesn't need to change. Could be we'd need to change the old Toshiba DVD player to a Blu-Ray. (We'll see how it goes.) The Sony has an outlet to connect to computer, but no WiFi capability. My laptop is right next to the set. Our old Sony 36-inch sat in a cubby in our bookcase that measures 40.5 wide X 30 high. The new Sony is 40 wide by about 27 high (with stand). I think I'll put it on a shelf to raise it nearer to the top of the opening. (We like our TV at or a little below eye level. Our optician recommended that many, many years ago.) This new set is LCD -- no LED, which I've heard can have some problems. Clarity is fine for us without that anyway. I didn't take the $100 four year Abt waranty. Smart? Not smart?