Thank you guys. Do you remember if you compared the HDMI/component output with 720p or 1080i ? I'm really interested in how 720p looks, since the projector is native 720p. I guess it also depends on the display you use.
I've run my Sammy DLP (720p native) from both the DVI and component outputs of the Dish 811 (had both over 3 years). I leave the Dish 811 set to 1080i output and let my Sammy do the conversion. Sometimes, if I really care about a live show broadcast from a 720p source (e.g., NFL on Fox), I'll reset the Dish 811 to a 720p output to eliminate any conversions. The Dish 811 does a terrible job of converting 1080i broadcasts to 720p, so almost anybody else's converter will do better.
On OTA HD, the DVI output will produce a slightly sharper picture, but the colors will be less saturated than with the component output. You can play with your HDTVs settings to improve the color saturation, but I could never get it to equal that of a well tuned component input. On all other sources, the sharpness is about the same and the color is almost always better with component. Note, the Dish 811 off of DVI had significantly better PQ than component back in 2003 and early 2004. Then Dish did a software change to "fix" the dark picture output from s-video and screwed up the DVI color output. They never fixed this dispite many complaints. In fact, Dish never acknowledged the problem.
Anyway, I run my Sammy off the Dish 811 component output and use the 2 DVI inputs (I have a switch on the DVI input to my Sammy) for an upscaling DVD Player and an LG LST4200A OTA HDTV receiver. With the LG receiver, I get the best HD picture of all using the DVI input.