Samsung CW29Z338T and 720p/1080i

Hi guys,
I have this TV and since now I've been using s-video to connect my PC to it. As you may guess, the picture quality is much lower comparing to this of my CRT monitor.
Recently I searched for more information how to take advantage of the 1080i capabilities of my TV and I read some mixed opinions about it. In order to send high definition signals to the TV it is clear that I should use the component input (because my TV does not have VGA, DVI or HDMI). And here comes the question. If I send high definition signal to it will the picture quality improve compared to the s-video connectivity?
Some people say that CRT TVs don't actually support high resolutions and supportability of 720p/1080i is just a marketing trick - the TV does understand these signals, but internally converts them to 480p (or the standard PAL resolution).
Other people say that there is a difference and the picture from High Def signal is much better.
I couldn't find a statement saying "I tried both s-video and component on my CRT 1080i TV and there is a real difference in the picture quality"

So my question is: Has anyone tried both connectivities to such TV and is there a real difference?
And I am asking because my video card hoesn't have HDTV-out and I can't just test it myself. I should buy a new video card and if the result is the same I would be very disappointed.

P.S. Here's a link to the TV technical details (full spec tabstrip):
I can't post it because I am new to this forum. It can be found on samsung.de. It says that it supports 480i/p,576i/p,720p,1080i

Yes, there is a huge difference between Component Video and S-Video, even at 480i--and that's not even considering that S-Video does not support 480p, 720p or 1080i.

S-Video is just a modification of Composite Video. With S-Video, the Chrominance (Color) information is kept separate from the Luminance (B&W) information. This is a significant improvement over Composite Video, as it eliminates the crosstalk (undesirable interaction) between the two signals (which produces false colors and dot crawl) and allows the Luminance signal to operate with more bandwidth for a sharper picture.

But resolution is still limited to NTSC SD with a 4:3 aspect ratio (although anamorphic "squeezed" widescreen is possible) and interlaced-only scanning (no progressive scan). Also, the colors are still defined by the NTSC phase-encoded color method, which has slow color transitions and inaccurate colors.

Component Video can be thought of as an RGB interface. Although the signals are not normally RGB (they are instead difference signals), they produce the same result. You can have much smaller pixels, with much more accurate color and much faster color transitions. Component Video can support HD resolutions, widescreen aspect ratio, progressive scan and is better in every way than S-Video.

As far as CRT-based HDTV's go, no, none of them are capable of fully displaying a 1920 x 1080 image, but this is due to the shadow mask and pitch of the phosphor dots on the tube itself. CRT HDTV's do not downscale to 480p, most of them upscale all signals to 1080i, then display 1080i as best they can. A special (more expensive) "fine-pitch" tube, like that found on a few SONY CRT models, could display around 1400 pixels per line on the screen, while the typical CRT HDTV can display from around 900-1200.

While much better than S-Video, particularly for computer text, Component Video on your HDTV likely still won't look as good as your Computer Monitor, as most CRT Computer Monitors used fine-pitch tubes.

Thank you very much BobY. I'll go for a video card with HDMI-out and when I manage to try it out I'll update the thread with the results :)