The Sony brand is expected to be high quality and has a price to match this perception. Unfortunately, my experience with a Sony projector has tainted my perception of the Sony brand. The Sony VPL-DX11 projector claims a lot of things, but one thing it's not is reliable.

Out of the box, the projector worked great. We mounted the projector at our office to use during meetings. Prior to mounting on the ceiling, we tested the projector and everything looked fine. The clear crisp picture was great and the projector's 1400 x 1050 resolution allowed even the smallest text to be readable at the back of our conference room.

Things started to go wrong about a day after use. We mounted the projector on the ceiling and immediately had problems with the bulb staying tight inside the projector casing. Twice we had to pull out the ladder and re-tighten the bulb for an inexplicable reason. Every time the bulb came loose, the picture would dim and become blurry. This is definitely a downside when you're trying to brief an important sales PowerPoint presentation.

We contacted the Sony servicing number and spent over an hour on the phone. The service representative did not understand why the bulb was loose and eventually conceded that we needed a replacement unit. In order to get one though, we had to send the original back to Sony. Unfortunately it took about another hour of convincing the service representative to send us a pre-postage paid box.

We still needed a projector, so we continued to use the VPL-DX11 while we waited for the box from Sony. After three days of use, the bulb itself was dim even after screwing it in tightly! The bulbs for this projector are rated for 2000 hours of normal use. In three days, there are 72 hours and the bulb was already dying out. As we opened the unit to replace the bulb, we noticed how warm the unit was running. This is probably what caused the bulb to burn out so quickly.

We finally received a replacement unit after three weeks of waiting. The new unit did not have the same problems as the first one, but the bulb lasted only two months before it had to be replaced. This is well below the rating. We opened the unit during use and noticed the same heat problem, albeit it's not as bad as the first one.

The only advantage of this projector is its light weight and aesthetic appeal. It's very slim line design appeals to modern fashion, but this projector's maintenance is unbelievable. The cost is around $1200, but the cost of bulbs every two months is prohibitive to its value.