Anyone go from a RS25 to a RS45?

Did you have your RS25 professionally calibrated? Or pretty much out of the box?

Here is what I would say:
1. RS25 will have better contrast, theoretically better colors (though not being calibrated it is hard to know for sure), cheaper lamps.
2. RS45 will have possibly more light output (we are not talking tons and it is a case by case, but on a whole it should), better processing generally, and 3D if you cared.

I guess if you are mainly wanting the lens it would be personal. If that was not an issue, I would probably not bother as undoubtedly you will lose money....

Another possibility is a Lumagen VP (there have been a lot of the HDx series on ebay lately for a few hundred$) and using its AR controls and memories.

It's what called the "shrink" method, which allows you to adjust aspect ratio without adjusting your lens. The downside to this is that resolution in 16:9 and 4:3 content is reduced (16:9 is about 1440x810 for example) as well as not as bright. It is however the most consistent in terms of brightness with the zoomed 2.35:1 CIH image.

Another factor the RS45 lacks is that there is no real color management system (CMS) that I recall (the RS25 does anyway), but since you only used pre-calibrated modes, this is kind of a moot point.

I wouldn't simply recommend a lumagen processor for their price, despite having excellent aspect ratio controls, simply to use the "shrink" method, although the CMS controls are more sophisticated than on the RS25. However, I'm more of a HTPC person these days, which the lumagen wins for convenience.

It's really how much you want the extra brightness and 3D is a factor to going from the RS25 to a RS45. The RS25 looks better than most consumer grade projectors out there with 3D.

Hopes this helps.

Yeah in general...definitely not going to be a downword step, but the RS25 is probably a slight bit better for 2D.

Please send me an email to jason@avscience.com. I can get you that.