I made a video that is uploading to youtube right now.

It's an unfair comparison, but it shows the evolution of standard definition TV pretty darn well..

My old Hitachi (the one in my sig)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v395/Evilweredragon/hitachi1-1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v395/Evilweredragon/hitachi2-1.jpg

A modern SDTV from 2003, a Sharp.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v395/Evilweredragon/sharp1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v395/Evilweredragon/sharp2.jpg

Yea, that's a pretty insanely huge difference.

Of course your comparing NTSC to NTSC, just different TV sets, one old one newer.
For a real shock compare NTSC to ATSC 1080P.

Check out these photos taken directly off the screen of a HD Plasma.http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1066162

Actually, it was NTSC to Y/Pr/Pb. The modern TV was using a much better format than NTSC.

Now, it would be interesting if the old TV could be modded for RGB, that'd possibly make it look halfway decent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AH4CVOFMn4U

Video uploaded.

Component video is going to have somewhat better monochrome, and significantly better color resolution because it is not subject to the bandwidth restrictions that component video (which is basically demodulated RF) has. Component video has bandwidth restrictions because it was intended to be sent along with an audio signal over a 6 MHZ wide analog OTA transmitter.

The old set would probably be a closer match if the newer set had an RF or composite signal input sent to it instead of a component video signal.

My 71 Zenith CCI deltagun set can beat most BPC CRT sets when both are fed the same RF signal.