The general opinion that I've seen online is that DVI on cable boxes currently offers little or no benefit over component. In some cases, I've heard folks prefer component, but not always. In theory, DVI has the potential to be better, if utilized fully, but the cable boxes and companies are not quite there yet. When I was shopping for my HDTV earlier this year, HDMI was not offered on cable boxes, so I don't know what performance HDMI might offer if available - but I would expect it to be similar to DVI since the boxes would likely produce the digital audio signal the same way. HDMI will carry digital audio, but DVI will not.

For what it's worth, here's what I do: component video from DVD player and DVD recorder to the 950's component inputs with the 950's component output to the HDTV, DVI from HD cable box to HDTV, digital audio from all three sources to 950 plus analog audio from HD cable box to 950. I would probably use component with the HD cable box if I didn't have the DVD recorder in the setup.