Tom,
Didn't mean to ignore the question. It seems its all relevant. I've seen S make a major difference over composite and I've seen component not so impressively better than composite, Progressive not so musch better than non progressive and vise versa. My experience is that it is all relevant to the quality of the gear. I simply use the best available connection or at least what is supposed to be the "best". The client feels better knowing we are getting the most out of their investment and so do I.
I hear you about the budget issue with the Pronto and had to overcome it myself. I haven't done a system in the past 6 months that didn't "include" a Pronto. Not that I recall.
I recently had a conversation with someone about s-video conversion in the Onkyo's. This someone know's A/v very well and was saying that it's not always wise to utilize the feature and in some cases will hinder your picture quality. Most of what he said went over my head but I got the point. I've yet to take the time to look at the difference.
CMack