Need some advice on a gaming projector

My Experience so far:
I've had a projector setup for nearly a decade now, I was never really into it I just like the big picture experience it offered. My first projector was an old Barco 500 that I won in a bet (long story).

I moved into a place where I couldn't fit that behemoth so I ended up buying a Boxlight "Raven" shortly after it was released, it seemed comparable to the Infocus X2 and I snagged it for about $200 less then the X2. While the Raven's image is much clearer/sharper I've been disappointed with the contrast and color compared to my old CRT ever since I purchased it (about 2 years ago now).

I'm in a little better financial situation now and I'd really like to get something I'll enjoy beyond just a big picture.

My general usage:
The primary use is for gaming, I have an Xbox 360 and a Wii, and I often play older consoles as well such as PS2, Xbox, Dreamcast, and Saturn (yes, I have a Saturn).

I watch a lot of DVD movies as well, but I have a good upscaling DVD player. I might also consider purchasing an HD-DVD or BluRay player within the next year as well but this is not as important to me as the gaming aspect as the PJ will be used for gaming 4 days out of the week and movies maybe once every other week.

What I'm looking for:
I'm definitely looking for something 720p native or better but obviously good 480i interlacing is very important as well considering many of the older consoles only support that mode. RGB support would be nice too (for things like the Saturn) but it's not vital to the decision.

Ideally I'd like to spend about $2500 but there is some leeway with that.

The thing that bothers me the most about my current projector is it's horrid black levels, worse contrast ratio and overall dim picture. In gaming I often have to crank up the brightness to see what I'm doing in darker games, which often ruins the ambiance. Adjusting for more accurate black and the image is just dim. (right now the screen is about a 96" diagonal in widescreen mode and the projector is ceiling mounted 14' away). even worse is max zoom at that distance the picture doesn't even fill the screen leaving a few inches on either side before the black masking.

Current unit's I'm considering:
I've been keeping my eye on some of the more popular 720p units for a while now such as the HD1000U and the HD72

however after reading though the recent "Highly Rated Home Theater Projectors" rundown on projector central I've changed my focus to some more newly released projectors.
After glancing over the spec sheets and reading a number of reviews I really like the following:
Sanyo PLV-Z5 (LCD)
Sharp XV-Z3000 (DLP)
Mitsubishi HC3000U (DLP)

My lingering questions:
Basically all of the aforementioned projectors look like solid units but I have a few concerns that I haven't been able to find answers to.

I realize that in general DLPs have better black levels and contrast ratios then the LCDs however the PLV-Z5 is rated at nearly double the contrast ratio of the XV-Z3000 and the HC3000U. As for black levels I really couldn't find how how the Sanyo performed, am I to expect it performs worse then the others just because it's an LCD? And if so would better black levels or better overall contrast ratio work better towards the type of generally dark games I like to play?

Most importantly how do these units stack up in terms of latency? particularly when scaling 480i or 480p video (usually over component or VGA)? This is one element that I haven't been able to find any info on.

Another thing that bothered me was that both DLP units require very close mounting positions, I'd need to re-mount and re-wire my current setup to meet their needs (which is doable but not all that appealing) though I'm mostly concerned with the mounting height and keystoning in this regard, my ceilings are fairly low but I fear I'd have to go with a pole setup which I'd really rather not have to do.

Lastly is cost concerns. The PLV-Z5 is quite a bit cheaper then the XV-Z3000 and the HC3000U at about 1600 as opposed to about 3000. However if I put this off for another 2 or 3 months and save another $1000 I could afford one of the new 1080p LCDs like the Mitsubishi HC5000BL or the Panasonic PT-AE1000U. Would it be worth doing that? being LCDs would they still not perform as well in terms of black levels as the DLPS even though they're essentially a class ahead?

I live in the central-northern part of NH so it's difficult for me to find real world demonstrations of projectors to help make my decisions. I rushed into my last projector purchase and regretted it so I'm just trying to make sure I make the right choice this time. and hopefully this next projector will last me at least until 1080p LED DLPs reach <$3K prices

Thanks for the replies

I realize the HD1000U is a solid projector but If I've got the budget for something 2-3 times the price wouldn't there theoretically be something that much better? Particularly considering the age of the HD1000U at this point? (remember this is my 3rd projector, I'm looking for something that will knock my socks off compared to a 2 year old DLP).

and more importantly are the new 1080p LCDs really that much worse then run-of-the mill 720p DLPs?

@GreenMonkey
I realize all HDTVs have lag, I'd be a fool to not expect some, but what I'm looking for is basically 2 things
1. is it so bad that gaming is not possible and
2. are there any resource with hard numbers in mili-seconds so I know exactly how these projectors stack up to each other? I mean if I'm thinking about 2 different projectors and cant make up my mind but one has less lag then the other, it becomes the clear choice.

I play a LOT of games and I'm quite competitive, so for me there is are large gap between a verbal endorsement of acceptable lag and an actual measured value.

Thanks for the insights

It really cleared up a lot of the confusion I had over what I'm really getting behind all of the Iris/contrast ratio trickery.

RBE doesn't really bother me, I can see them on occasion, depending on the content, and I can purposefully dart my eyes across the screen and see them that way but in general it's pretty rare that I see them and when I do it doesn't bother me all that much.

After reading your post and reading a few more reviews from different sources I'm highly considering the Mitsubishi HC3000U as it seems to offer the best balance between brightness and black levels/contrast ratio.

The Mitsubishi HC3100 and the Optoma HD73 look like other solid choices as well, though the 3100 isn't available in the US yet and the HD73 still seems too new to have a good selection of reviews or insights into if it has any long term problems.

As for 480i stuff I don't have much of a problem with 480i games so long as they're de-interlaced well, it seems a necessary evil though considering I've discovered a number of Wii games still only run in 480i mode, as does most of the PS2's library.

I've heard the best scaler for 480i content is the Faroudja and I know a lot of the Infocus brand projectors carry them but what about these Mitsu's and Optomas?

I've actually already got my wii up and running on my current PJ...

My screen is a Dalite pull down and I mounted the sensor bar to the top of recoil case on a slight downward facing angle.

My seating is a good 14-15' away from the screen. and while it doesn't work as good as it did on my old 25" CRT (where I had it hooked up before I got some component cables) it is definitely still playable.

The sensor only effects pointing, so games like Wii sports don't even use the sensor bar unless you're in the menus. With that said tracking is definitely better in the center of the screen and it gets a little rough at the edges and the bottom (since the sensor is on the top. My screen is an 84x84" so the top of the image is quite a few inches below where the sensor is mounted, I imagine if I was able to mount the sensor closer to the the top of the actual image it would be much better.

Games like Red Steel and Zelda give me ZERO problems and the tracking is rock solid as long as you're sitting directly in line with the sensor, sitting off to the sides you'll start to have some problems. The only areas where I've had problems is the Wii dashboard and the menu's to Wii sports. I think this is due to the fact that the sensor bar is used to detect the tilt of the hand icon, and it causes it to wobble back and forth. It's still navigatable and doesn't effect gameplay. The code to smooth out the signal is obviously much better in RS and LoZ:TP. I haven't played any other games yet.

If you go into calibration mode you'll see on your screen what the Wii remote is seeing when it looks at the sensor bar.

Basically the Wii remote needs a clear view of the sensor bar at all times. I believe the bigger problem is how high or low the sensor bar is when using a PJ... not necessarily the power of the sensor bar or the distance.

I've debated making an IR LED array that would mount near my PJ and reflect directly off of the screen, giving it a much more natural location but It hasn't really given much much problems during actual game play so I haven't bothered looking much further into it.

The point function on the Wii isn't actually relative to the screen it's relative to the sensor. So on a smaller 25" TV or so it might look like the remote is pointing exactly where the pointer is displayed on the screen. However on a big screen you'll notice the pointer will hit the edge of the screen LONG before remote is actually pointing there. In other words the location of the pointer on the screen does not line up with where the remote is actually pointing.

Standing a fixed distance from the screen movement of the remote Xdegrees will correspond to moving X% of the way across the screen, rather then Xinches.

If you think of it geometrically the closer you are to the sensor the more movement it takes to move the pointer so at 5' from the sensor it might require you only move the remote 30degrees to reach the screens edge... where as at 15' it might only take you 15 degrees of movement to reach the screens edge.

So standing further back makes the remote more sensitive, like turning the speed up on your mouse.

As for how far the range is before it looses signal completely, you can adjust it in the settings, on the default settings I had trouble around 12' but tweaking it a bit I can use it at 15' without problem.

"sensor bar" is kind of a misnomer because it doesn't sense anything, it's just 2 clusters of IR LEDs, the sensors are in the remote itself. This makes it easy to build your own (battery operated and wireless if you're so inclined). Spacing it out wider will help map the actual direction of the remote to the direction it's pointing. More powerful LEDs will boost how far away you can stand without loosing signal, but neither of these things will fix the poor tracking, which really stems from the sensor bar being mounted either too high or too low. edge tracking would actually get worse if the bar was widened because both sides need to be in view of the remote and making it wider would mean you'd loose one side of the senor bar at a smaller angle.

Having played around with location quite a bit The idea location for the sensor bar is probably about 7' from where you're playing and with the hight of the bar somewhere between the top of your head and your waist while standing. This makes it very difficult for projectors unless you have some kind of pedestal that sits out in front of you in the middle of the floor.