ok
why are you using DVI? is your box a 8300 HD? all of them should use HDMI
if your running DVI run a pair of red/white audio to your TV input, your tv will have a provision for this… to run DVI-hdmi and bring in seperate anaolg sound
your TV will not have ANY differance in soudn quality using red/white audio vs the “digital” audio that is with HDMI… TRUST me your tv speakers suck and the amp sucks you will NOT hear the differance, you wont loose any surround sound cuz its a stereo tv
your television shoudl NOT look like shit with component cables… something else is wrong… 9/10 it is the fact that
A) you hooked the RF cable into the television as well and are not looking at the component input but in fact the RF cable
B) the box is NOT setup to output HD, press the guide/info buttons on the box itself at the same time and follow the onscreen setup for HD.
give me a call and ill walk u through this