My picture quality is pretty bad, worse than what I had in Vancouver with Shaw. I bought my box in June and I'm looking to exhaust some options before going to Bell.

Anyway, wanted to compare component to HDMI, and my box won't allow component in from my Panny plasma. I know it's not the tv because the it's accepting component from my Xbox just fine.

Any ideas? Wondering if Rogers PQ is this bad or if maybe I got a lemon box?

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There is no component in on the 8300.

An 8300HD will not usually send signals to the Component out if the HDMI is connected.

First, you won't see any discernible difference between Component and HDMI. If you have a lousy picture (I assume you mean that it looks SD, not HD?) then it is likely that you have not setup your Rogers box correctly. Redo the setup (selecting the formats/resolutions for your TV).

Here's the FAQ on the SA STBs:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=17719

As mentioned above, there is no component input on the SA8300HD and the CV output will not work if HDMI is connected.

Unplugged my HDMI cable from the STB, and powered the STB off and on. Didn't seem to work.

Unplugged my HDMI cable from the STB, and powered the STB off and on. Didn't seem to work.
What didn't seem to work? Are you saying you have the STB hooked up to the TV with Component video cables and you get no picture? If so, make sure you have selected the correct input on your TV - especially if you have multiple component inputs.

I think you'll have to be a bit more precise to get more help.

My Panasonic has two component inputs. One is for the Xbox, the other is plugged into the STB. Regardless of whether the component cables are in input 1 or input 2 on my TV, the Panasonic won't recognize the STB or there's something with the STB not recognizing the component cables. I've tried two sets of cables and neither work. I've tried unplugging the HDMI from the STB and that didn't work.
Not sure what to try now.

What model is your Panasonic? If nothing is connected to an input can you select that particular input and see a blank screen with the name of the input on the screen?

After unplugging the HDMI have you unplugged the STB for a minute to allow it to reboot (wait for the time to be displayed again)? Unplug the HDMI from the TV too, just in case. If it still doesn't work, if the STB is on, and if the TV is switched to the proper input, you could possibly have a faulty STB.

Here's a list of other things to check.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=19694

Sometimes people who have poor lighting or are in a hurry will plug the component video cables incorrectly - for example, plugging the red cable into the red analogue audio connection. Make sure you've got the correct Red/Green/Blue output from the STB to the correct Red/Green/Blue input on the TV.