after some wrangling, the raspberry pi composite out feed now displays on the CRT. Here it displays a terminal-based screensaver (cmatrix); it is also monitoring the temperature and humidity in the living room. Next challenge is getting infrared signal working!
This table was a bit taller and more topheavy than I wanted, so I grabbed a squat coffee table from the dumpster and did some Modification. There side compartments for eg the remote, and the inner components are not dangling menacingly.