Not sure what I did, but....
I decided to put all the RF tubes back in and try the tuner again since composite injection was not working out, then low and behold it starts working! Unbelievable, this set is straight outta '59 and works with no resto at all. This is with some coax (not matching x-former) going straight from the DVR to the set.
Vertical looks a bit stretched at the top to me, and height needs adjusting.
Where the heck are the height/width controls on this thing anyway???