Nikkai A52HF Review

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1.8 stars
Average rating for this product is: 1.8 out of 5

From 1 rating and 22 reviews

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boatingbrock's Review of Nikkai A52HF Digital Video Recorder

11th Feb 2008

Overall Rating

0.5 stars
  • Value for money
    0.5 stars
  • Features
    2 stars
  • Time DVR Owned
    1 - 6 Months
  • Ease of Use
    2 stars
Good Points

Compact, can choose size of HDD


Bad Points

C5 reception / reliability


General Comments

I ordered the Nikkai A52HF on 4/12/08 from Maplin and took delivery of it shortly after. As it was a Christmas gift, it was not put into use until 27/12/08 or thereabouts. I fitted the unit with a new 160GB drive and began to use it.

Most channels were received OK , but Channel 5 reception was rather poor, so I changed the aerial with little improvement. I fitted an aerial booster but still Channel 5 was not received well - the picture would break up or freeze, and the audio would also cut out now and again.

My 4 year old Mitsui set top box coped with either aerial arrangement faultlessly, as did a recently purchased Digital LCD TV, so basically, there is little wrong with my aerial set-up.

I might have tolerated the poor performance for C5 (although C4 was not that great) except that the PVR function then stopped working:

In the last couple of days I have found that whilst the unit appears to be recording, on trying to play back, nothing has been recorded - the file is listed as either 0MB or 1MB, but is evidently empty. Older recordings still played OK, and the pause TV is still working.

In an attempt to get the PVR mode working, I re-formatted the drive, losing all saved material, but this has made no difference. I have to conclude that this unit is not really fit for purpose, and am currently seeking a return authorisation from Maplin.

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