I found a good deal on an old Lumagen VisionHDP, so I took a chance. I have my CLD-79 connected to the HDP with composite. The Lumagen is connected to a Canon X700 LCoS projector. I have tried both DVI output and RGB. RGB looks a little better, but they both look worse than when I was plugging directly into the projector from the LD player with s-video. The main problem is tons of noise, bright colors bounce and flicker, and there is a screen door that wasn't there without the Lumagen. I know calibrations are necessary, and I have fiddled with a few settings already. Do I need to buy a test disc? Or will the standard bar test pattern be enough? And what setting should I be looking for anyway? Or should I chuck it and go back to s-video?

You just need to keep adjusting.
It takes some time, I just picked up an older LCD TV set and it took me 20 minutes to change the color etc and get a decent picture, and this was just with OTA.

Yeah, I've gone step by step through the manual several times over the past few days, and it still doesn't look any better. Colors are fine, but the noise is still terrible, and I occasionally get scrolling horizontal lines in the background. I think I was better off without it.