I, personally, tried only once to go from my DVD to Outlaw through component and then to my LCD via component video again (thus no transcoding). I experienced a significant degradation is image quality which reminded me again the main motto in analog technology. "With analog, the shortest and simplest path is always the best".

I know that a lot of folks are eager to use the AV Receiver as their video switch, but I prefer to go directly into the TV (which has a very generous array of inputs) especially in the case of analog signals.

I know, your setup seems a bit more complex and your experience might have something to do with the transcoding, but, if possible, try to go by the analog motto. Less is more, keep it simple and short.