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- Nikkai A52HF
- Peteywetey's review
Have a picture of Nikkai A52HF Digital Video Recorder?, please send it to us.
| Features | 3.5/10   |
|---|---|
| Ease of Use | 4.2/10 |
| Value for Money | 3.7/10 |
| Reviewer Rating | 3.7/10 |
| Overall Rating | 3.6/10 |
By Peteywetey
on 21st Jun 2008
| Time DVR Owned | Between 1 - 4 Weeks |
|---|---|
| Features | 4/10 |
| Ease of Use | 3/10 |
| Value for money | 6/10 |
| Overall value | 5/10 |
 Peteywetey's recommendation | |
Compact, built-in mains psu, genuine on/off switch.
Hardware works well.
Poor software and worse manual.
I bought a Nikkai A52HF from an eBay vendor and put a donated 40GB hard disk in it. Including postage, it cost me just under £30. It replaces a five-year-old Panasonic TUCT20 Freeview box .
I have experienced none of the problems of poor reception and freeezes that other reviewers have reported. The picture quality is as good as the Panasonic box delivered and the sound is noticeably better. Recordings play back glitch-free and smooth. There's a proper mains plug and on/off switch rather than a silly psu brick or wart.
The box itself feels as if it was made from the thinnest possible metal. This does little to absorb the noise from the hard disk, so it's best to put the recorder in a cabinet rather than leave it out. It's also a good idea to select a quiet hard disk. for it..
The instruction manual is poor - badly translated and unclear. The information is all there - somewhere - but you have to dig for it.
The software has the look of a preliminary version.
- Although it does work, it's clumsy and unintuitive in use. You can only record one programme at a time, despite the twin tuners, so you can't time-shift the channel you're watching if you're recording another at the same time.
- There are no interactive or teletext, so no red button features,
- The changeover between shared channels, for example CBBC and BBC3, takes an age.
- No Freeview Playback functionality.
If I had paid the original price of £60 for this unit and another £50 or so for a hard disk I'd be feeling pretty fed up. As it is, I feel that for £30, as the recorder basically works OK, I've got decent value for money.
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