My current connections are as follows...
HDMI from sony up converting dvd to 1070 DVI in.
DVI out on 1070 to hdmi in on samsung lcd.
I also have s video going from directv receiver to 1070 and then to samsung for menu. My question is am I getting better picture from my directv programming by having these connections or would it be the same as just hooking up the dvd player directly to the tv and having the s video from the directv reciever to the tv. Is there any up conversion going on with the way I have it set up now or is the picture I am getting the same as if I had it connected to the tv with just an s video cable. Any other suggestions for connections?

Thanks

The s-video connection from DirecTV to 1070 to TV will likely be identical to an s-video connection straight from DirecTV to TV. The 1070 would not be changing the signal except for adding on-screen display, and s-video can only support the 480i that the signal is already in so upconversion isn't possible anyway. I'd probably leave the DirecTV video connection the way it is.

so having the HDMI/DVI connection the way I do does nothing for directv picture quality as far as upconverting. It strictly would be for dvd picture only. So until I go High Def or get a directv receiver with component connections the best I can do with directv is s video picture quality

The HDMI/DVI switching in the 1070 is purely switching for the digital video inputs - there is no analog (composite/s-video/component) to digital (DVI/HDMI) video transcoding going on. Until you move to an HD DirecTV receiver (the only way I know of to get component outputs), the s-video is probably your best bet.