Picked up a Pioneer Pro 530 HDI rear projection tv for 10 bucks at a thrift store . Of course it cost me 30 dollars and gas for the truck but what a find . Dragging it into my co op was a challenge but it looks great with its piano black finish as it seriously dwarfs my Samsung 42 inch LCD.
I always wanted to see LDs projected from a CRT, because as I see it, film in a theatre is projected, plus the CRT blacks are deeper. So far, there’s not a damn thing wrong with this beast.

Two HDMI inputs, and I use one for cable tv which looks astonishingly good. The other I use for blu ray which left me with my mouth open . Watched Wonder Woman in absolute awe on this bad boy. I then tossed in my ID4 Special Edition LD plugged into composite and again it didn't disappoint . Vivid colors . Crisp . And the built in speakers kick out some nice highs and lows.

Old school TVs aren’t dead as far as I’m concerned. Just wanted to share this find with my forum friends. BTW, the tv was originally 20 dollars but I was there on a 50% off day.

Ah yes, the 50% off GW, my wife says today is the last day.

I've always thought about picking up a beast, we have a larger place now and since they are cheap.
But will it fit into my car??? LOL

Good to hear that you enjoy it, was there a lot of setting up with the projector or was it easier than people say?

Thanks. Again, I just can't say enough about how good the picture quality is. Just watched the first Die Hard blu ray on this monster and it was incredible.

But yeah, it won't fit in a car or even an SUV, believe me. The enjoyment is worth the haul if you come accross one. It's funny how the unit has two HDMI inputs but the manual (which you can find and print on line) isn't up to speed on calling it HDMI. HDMI was pretty new in 03 I think. Anyway they just call it a "digital input". I'd love to see if I could track where this thing came from by serial number or something. You know, sort of like Ancestory.com.

LOL my projector is from around 2006 and has an HDMI and I thought that was early.
Still very cool and one day I may pull the trigger and get one if timing is right.

Nice!!

Always kicked around the idea of getting an HD RPTV (like one of these.)

Especially on the later Sony's if they used the same 3D comb filters as their higher end CRTs.

Only downside would be that it's doubtful that Sony made any CRT RPTVs with HDMI like that Pioneer.

They did make a 70" 16:9 "WEGA" RPTV with an HDCP compliant DVI connector that I wouldn't mind seeing how it performed with LD. Not sure if it's CRT projection or not though.

My Pioneer RPTV is a 64 inch. I don't think they would make that oddball number screen size today. In fact I've noticed that 46 inch LCDs are becoming less available. It seems their rounding the screen sizes off to 20, 40, 50 ,60 and even 70. As to HDMI, yes, I'm still very surprised that my 03 model has it. Then again Pioneer was/is very ahead of the curve. I'd like to research when HDMI first appeared and what brands got in early on it. I had a 06/07 Panasonic Tau WS direct view CRT and it had HDMI and I thought that was huge. Just glad its on this unit because it changes picture quality on a RP bigtime.

I really don't like these things, but they can look good (this appears to be quite a solid model) and it sounds like you are really enjoying it.

LD definitely does look good on projection. I have a Sony G70, looks real nice.

Pioneer always added the bells and whistles to their Elite models and this RPTV is just that.

Yeah HDMI in 2003 means it was pretty much top shelf. I can safely say I've never had a RPTV of this caliber. Do or did have top crts, plasmas and projectors.

A quick Google search reveals that HDMI came out in 02 but I suppose only hi end stuff had it until it was mainstreamed .
I remember my cable guy back in the day saying , “ you don’t want to get into that” as if it was some kind of complicated monstrosity.