Chris,
Sorry for the lack of responses. I think part of the reason is that there do not seem to be strong "favorites" amongst the choices. What probably matters most is that the one you get is in good shape and performs to it's capabilities. From a pure playback performance standpoint, there don't seem to be big differences. However, there are differences in features and ease of use. Check out the spreadsheet in post 44 of the recommended list
here for this information. You also may want to check the user manuals (Sony has most of them online) of the ones you are seriously considering just to confirm its features and capabilities.
For me, how the tape is loaded and where and what type of connections can make "handling" the camcorder easier for use as a capture playback device.
Lastly, if you are only capturing Hi8 and Video8 tapes (no Digital8) you might want to look for one of the later Sony Hi8 camcorders rather than a D8 camcorder. They have the same TBC and DNR so the playback "quality" is the same. Their advantage is that they don't have to "shift" gears from digital to analog to play an analog tape. In order to play back an analog tape the D8 camcorder has to identify it as analog and then adjust its playback settings to suit (including drum and tape speed). This actually takes a few frames to do and sometimes it simply fails and the particular D8 unit simply can't play that analog tape (or segment of tape). This potential failure to play some analog tapes is clearly stated in most of the Sony manuals.
I ended up with one of each (D8 and Hi8) and the Hi8 camcorder can capture a few more initial frames at the start of each scene. With home videos, there can be lots of separate scenes so potentially many initial frames to lose since most home videographers didn't pre-roll their videos and say "action" before they got that special smile on tape.
Hope this helps,
BW