Is it normal for DVI to be notably sharper than Component? It is for me using a Sony CRT HDTV (34HS510) or Gateway FPD2485W LCD monitor with (either) an old Sony SAT-HD200 or Samsung SIR-T451 DTV tuners. I still get high-def, but lost sharpness. Also, my low-def DVD player actually displays more detail through S-video...I am using cheap cables for component.

How notably? How cheap?

In my experience, DVI/HDMI is not significantly sharper than component, but, being analog, it would be easier to degrade component without it being obvious. If you mess up DVI or HDMI it's obvious; you lose picture or suffer breakups and dropouts. With component you lose picture quality, and the loss can range from minor to major depending on how badly it's messed up.

You don't need expensive cables to get good performance - cables from monoprice work fine - but you do need the right kind of cables. For example, if you tried to use plain old audio RCA cables for component video, the results could range from severely degraded picture to no picture at all (depending on the cables of course).

I personally don't see a difference between DVI/HDMI and component. I use both component and HDMI on my equipment depending which is the most convenient.

Seems to vary widely. Read a post just before this one, from someone in the CRT RPTV forum, who switched from DVI or HDMI over to YPbPr and found images looked better. -- John

If you are only playing SD 480i DVDs they will play best on your CRT TV since it can can at 480i or at 1080i.
If you are upscaling the standard DVDs to 1080i for either the CRT or the Digital TV they will not look as good.
If you are watching 1080i TV programs then then the PQ shold be about the same with the CRT TV if it has 9" guns and it is scanning at 1080i as they will on your 1920x1200 PC monitor using it's VGA interface at 1080p/60.

I might have to try a better cable, the one I'm using is the thin stuff provided in the box.