First buy, looking for AE7000 quality without 3D price

The Benq w1070 is good and is even at a lower price than your budget, but not sure about lag time though for gaming.
Is it as GOOD as the Panny, well in some ways it is better, but it is not as good at black levels as the Panny when the Panny's IRIS kicks in. It isn't nearly as feature-rich however.

So you lose some black levels with a DLP. So, is there a projector as good as the Panny WITH dark blacks in that price range?

There are at least two better at blacks than the Panny that I know of near your $1500 max:
The ones I can think of are a refurb 8700ub or a B-STOCK or used JVC HD-250, but the HD-250 is hard to find in B-stock now I think.

Is there a projector that can be purchased new in the $1,000 - $1,500 price that has blacks near the Panny?
Well, possibly the Sharp 170000, seen a few of those around $1,400, but be aware it does have some of its own issues as most projectors do. Oh, also the Acer 9500BD DLP is about the same at black levels as the Panny, except that its IRIS isn't as smooth.

That is what I know, there are probably some other refurb or B-Stock deals you may come across, and what I posted above is most likely not your only choices, just the choices I know of, though I doubt I missed many.
Edited by coderguy - 3/17/13 at 10:23am

Projectorcentral's review puts the W1070 in the kind of knock around home video projector category, but not a projector they would recommend worthy for a home theater room or even good enough to present photography...do you feel differently?

PJC says a lot of things. I've never felt poorer black levels automatically rejects a projector back to a living room. I actually dislike when people refer to projectors as "living room" projectors, I think it's a dumb concept even though I get what they are saying. Everything in this stuff is trade-offs, so really it depends on the individual of what they want from the image. In this price range, you aren't going to find any new projectors that have much better blacks than the w1070, other than Refurbs or B-Stock, though the 8350 and Mits hc4000 probably are a bit better here, they still aren't at the sweet spot.

Every projector has advantages / disadvantages, you can use an ND filter to correct the brightness. Do I feel that because the w1070 has mediocre black levels that it only belongs in a living room, absolutely not, it just won't look as good for those darkest movies. I watch a Benq w7000 all the time on TV and other stuff in my dedicated room, in some stuff it will look as good as the JVC or even slightly better, but my JVC is MAINLY used for dark movies.

As far as to present photography, well that makes little sense to me, since the Benq's are sharper. I guess he's talking about dark photography.

The truth is that many LCD's have bad white uniformity (inconsistent colors on pure white scenes), aren't as sharp, and they have a worse pixel fill. PJC also claims the Panny is in the same league as the JVC, and I completely disagree for 2D (no insult meant to Panny 7000/8000 owners, just that's my opinion).
Edited by coderguy - 3/17/13 at 10:55pm

The w1070 produces a better image if you can make it fit in your room.