An extended warranty is a fixed-price insurance policy that, as the name suggests, goes beyond the manufacturer’s standard warranty. Most televisions come with one of these policies as an optional extra. It’s meant to provide financial protection to the buyer in the event that their expensive new HDTV breaks or malfunctions.

So should you take out a TV warranty?

Extended warranties typically offer benefits such as preventative maintenance, free replacement, no or low-cost repairs, and protection against power surges. Many of these policies even offer in-home service and pickup for defective products, so you don’t have to lug your big, heavy TV back to the store.

A worthwhile plan should act as a bumper-to-bumper warranty for your car. It should cover the display (burn-in), buttons, inputs, outputs, internal components, TV mount, IR remote sensor, on-board circuitry/software, and more.