HD Fury is converting a digital signal to analog. That process is never 100% transparent, as the performance of the video DAC's are important. If you had a source that had really good video processing capabilities, however - something like the BDP-83, for example, which uses the ABT2010 processor for the HDMI output but not the component output - but your display lacks either DVI or HDMI, the extra cost of an HD Fury can be justified as it does offer access to that better video source (improved scaling and deinterlacing, more options for zooming).

For Bill O's situation, I don't think that it's really necessary. He's probably best off simply sticking with component video connections. The 980H's video processing is the same for both component and HDMI, and the satellite box is going to be similar as well.