The lamp blew after 2 years of hard use (15 hours/day) and I purchased the generic replacement UX51213 but the TV doesn't like it. Has anyone experienced the same problem or did I just get a defective lamp?
I don't have an answer re your bulb however I do have a question, I have the same model that is 2 years old. I'm thinking it might need a new lamp but have seen all kinds of problems related to the V500 series. What symptoms did you experience before the bulb blew, my TV has a yellow hue dead centre of the screen and bleeding out from there to cover at least 2/3rd of the screen, I don't know if this is a bulb problem or something else, one place told me it was the "light engine" for $1,200. Another said the "light engine" is a fancy name for the lamp. The TV was $3,400. I still haven't finished paying for it and am really upset at the prospect of a $1,200 repair. Might as well move it to the curb if that's the case.
A couple of days prior to the failure, I noticed the picture was a bit darker. When it blew there was an audible pop,the screen went black and the LED indicator was a constant red.Turned out that I had the correct lamp, it just required a bit more force when installing so that all the contacts were mated properly. Now for the bad news. A few months before the lamp failed, the screen had a 2 inch horizontal green band at the top. As soon as the tech saw it, he knew right away and ordered the part. It was the "bloque optique"(literal translation, optical block) at a cost exceeding $2k cdn. Luckily I had an extended warranty which covered the repair. You may want to take as high up the Hitachi ladder as possible. It doesn't appear to be an isolated problem. Good luck.
Thanks very much for getting back to me. I have noticed that it is very dark for a minute or longer when first turning the TV on. I did not take the extended warranty, for the most part I have found them a bit of a rip off, however in this case I guess I was wrong. For sure if it was a $2K repair I would just ditch the thing. This is very disheartening I am close to retiring and bought the TV so it would be paid for when I do retire. I did call Hitachi but they seemed not to care about my problem or the fact that a two year old machine would need such an expensive repair. You know the old saying "you get what you pay for" certainly doesn't apply here!