Top 10 Hitachi 50V500 50 in. HD-Ready LCD Television Questions & Answers

Im sorry i dont understand what you mean"I have a shadow on my picture"??? Please be more discriptive? Thanks . Maybe a picture of it??

You have a defective light engine and you DO NOT have to be under warranty to have it replaced. Here's what you need to do...we just went through this. You need to call Hitachi's Customer Relations Department (not regular customer service). The customer relations # for Hitachi is 800-654-7013. Tell them what's happening with your set and that you think it's a bad light engine. When you call them, they will initially act like they have not heard of this problem but will give you some names of some certified Hitachi dealers in your area.

Call one of the dealers and they will send a tech out to diagnois the problem. Once the tech tells you that you have a defective light engine (all they have to do is look at the set when you have it turned on) call Hitachi customer relations back and tell them you had a tech out to confirm the problem. They will then act like they know exactly what you're talking about...imagine that! They will call the dealer that came out and once they confirm this with them, they will send a new light engine to the dealer. The dealer will then call you and arrange a time to come out and install it.

This part is paid for by Hitachi, regardless if you're under warranty or not. If your under warranty, the service should be covered if not, the part will be covered by Hitachi and all you pay is for the install. Our install was $400. DO NOT let any dealer get the part and tell you that you have to pay the $1500 for it. Hitachi knows about this problem and they are paying for the part. All you pay is for the install. Again, deal only with customer relations at the number listed above and only deal with a dealer Hitachi refers you to. Good Luck!

There is a service bulletin for this problem - you need to reintialize the memory settings in the service menu - I have a pdf file showing how to do this.

I had whole redish/pinkish screen on my 50v500 starting a few days ago, then I read through each of the threads on this site for the samilar problems on my model. I found TVtechmaniac's solution (pasted below) solved my problem. Thank you TVtechmaniac!

Enter the I2C Service Menu, be sure the power is OFF.
1. On the front control panel, press and hold the INPUT button.
2. Then press the POWER button for two seconds.
3. You may keep the INPUT button depressed until you see the OSD with the Service Menu displayed.
4. If you don't see the service menu, please repeat Process making sure you wait until the Power blinking LED stops.
5. Execute the Memory Initialize operation after the adjustment values have been written on a sheet of paper. Highlight “MEMORY INTI”, arrow to the right and hold the button to the right (approx 5 sec.) until a check mark appears in the box. This activates the Memory Initialization.
6. After the Memory initialize operation has finished (10~15 sec, the channel will revert to CH 3.) the pink image symptom should be fixed.
7. Write back the adjustment values from your notes to their respective adjustment parameters in the adjustment mode. (In other words, set the Data Values back to the the Data values written down before the Memory Initialization procedure). NOTE: Make sure the SELECT Button is pressed on remote after every change to the values. Failure to do so will result in the data values not being changed.
8. Exit I2C menu. Press exit repeatedly until you go back to the normal picture.
9. Turn the set off-on and Confirm the picture remains in a good condition.
BE SURE TO COPY DOWN DATA SETTINGS BEFORE INITIALIZING I2C SETTINGS

We took in a 60v500a with the same problem, Customer bought a new set. We took hers apart. Here is what we found.
1 there is a squril cage blower and a small air duct that cools the lcd screens and polarizer lenses. Yes there are 3 polarizer lenses one in front of each LCD screen.

These start to overheat and discolor. Maybe the filter for the fan clogs up.

Don't really know.

You can pull the LE and vaccum the filter clean every 3-6 month.

You can remove the lenses and maybe the tv will look ok maybe not. I have read where some have had there repaired and now they see vertical lines in the screen. This seems to be a quike fix by removing the melted lens. Cool A.

If it's a ghosting problem that looks like this:

it's probably something you can correct yourself...

I'll tell you what I tran into and how it got resolved...
I experienced the same problem , with the blinking light...
Purchased a replacement lamp..
It didn't work(After market Universal supposably)..
Well..Come to find out.The Replacement lamp's housing looks similar, but the connecters that come out the back of the housing weren't quite long enough to trigger the microbe that activates the lamp in the Television.
Luckily I had the original lamp and it's housing that came with the television..
Took the bulb out of the new replacement lamp
Placed it in the original housing , and BINGO..It worked and is still working...

You have a defective light engine and here is what you need to do...we just went through this. You need to call Hitachi's customer relation department at 800-654-7013 and tell them the problems your having and that you think it's a defective light engine. They will initially act like they have no idea what you're talking about but will give you the names of some certified dealers in your area to call. Once you have a tech out from the dealer and they confirm the light engine problem (takes less than a minute) call Hitachis customer relation department back and tell them that a certified tech confirmed the problem. All of a sudden, Hitachi will say they are aware of the probelm...imagine that!

Hitachi will call the dealer and confirm this with them and they they will send the light engine directly to the dealer and Hitachi will cover the cost of the part (around $1500). All you will pay for is the install. Our install was $400...worth it to us since we paid $3600 for this TV 3+ years ago and it's been a great TV.

DO NOT let the dealer tell you that you will have to pay for the part. Hitachi knows about this problem all to well and they are replacing the part for free.. Again, you only pay the install. Please deal only with the customer relations department at the number I listed above. If you deal with their regular customer service people, they will have you chasing your tell. Hitachi customer relations will take care of you! Good Luck!

I'm glad it all worked out with Hitachi. As far as replacing the light engine yourself, I just know that when the tech came out and replaced ours, he literally took our set apart. It took him 2 plus hours and he had the entire contents of the set laid out all over the floor. It appeared to be very labor intensive. I've also read some posts on this board where a couple of people have tried changing it out themselves only to have other problems that they ended up having to have a tech come out and fix...along with replacing the light engine. So, I would be apprehensive to do it myself. Having said that, if you do service work, as you've mentioned, and you have someone that knows what they're doing, it may be worth a shot. All I can really go on is the extensive work that the certified tech did when he came out and replaced ours. At one point, I wasn't sure if our TV would ever work properly again due to his taking the set apart but it works great and the new light engine did the trick...Good Luck!

Here is a web site you can go to for the class action suit.

http://www.angelreyesblog.com/2008/08/articles/lawsuits-and-verdicts/hitachi-class-action-lawsuit-filed-by-horpb/