I have a NEC 6pg Xtra that was calibrated by John Gannon with a Faroudja NRS universal processor and a HD DVD player the contrast is set at 70 by John but on the HD DVD player its seem a little dark what is the safe range I could turn up the contrast without causing damage to my pristine tubes on the pass thur also should I set the player to 0 IRE off or 7.5 IRE on ?

Default contrast is 75, but if the image is "too dark" you probably need to increase the brightness (black level). Just don't set it so high that blacks turn dark grey.