Nikkai A52HF

The Nikkai A52HF is very good overall, got a 250gb 7500rpm hdd in there and it runs silently, clock is very acurate dispite what others have said, very easy set up, perfect picture quality, much better than the basic freeview box i used b4. very basic and easy to us for anyone that is not technically minded.

I have owned this unit for a few months now, purchased from Maplin for £39.99. I had a spare 250GB hard drive laying around which I installed in the unit. This gave me a 250GB freeview recorder for under £40.

Initial set up of the unit was simple with no real problems. In fact other than using the manual for the hard drive install I managed to set up the unit and do some recording without reading anything. This is probably just as well as the manual is fairly poor.

Initial impressions of the unit were poor but I decided to stick with it and see if the unit was going to be usable. The unit was purchased as a replacement for a dvd recorder which had decided to start rejecting most DVD's recorded on it.

I partcularly liked the fact that you could delete unwanted channels, You will be surprised how many other manufactures don't allow this. particularly if you have a top-up tv recorder.

The first thing noticable was the quality of the TV reception on the unit. Most freeview STB's or recorders all seem to me to have a fairly similar picture quality and this unit is about the same. However many of the other units I have tried such as Digihome or TVonics were very prone to picture stutter or break up, however I have not had any problems like this with this unit.

The record quality seems to be identical to live and on my units seems to fast forward and rewind with no problem even when recording another program at the same time.

By far the worst aspect of the unit is the electronic program guide EPG and the now/next info. They quite simply doesn't work. Quis can make it a problem to set timed recordings using the EPG but it does sometimes work OK and they can be set manually anyway.

As other people have said "You can only record 1 channel at a time" True.. However if you can find 2 things worth recording at the same time then you are doing better than me. When the timer has been set I have never had any problem with the unit missing any recordings.

To sum up. Yes it's not great, but it can be cheap, picture and record quality is very good, The software is buggy but I have tried several recorders and they all seem to have something wrong with them.

If you have an existing hard drive (like me) want to do occasional recording (like me), couldn't care less about digital text (like me) then go and buy one you probably won't be TOO dissapointed.

Not worth the full price looks & feels very cheap in my opinion. The only reason I am getting a replacement rather than a refund is I only paid £20 as a "B Grade", I have a spare 320GB hard-drive to put in it and it is not my main recorder. The one maplins sent me had obviously been well used and was second hand rather than "B Grade" in my opinion, do not recommend Nikkai A52HF.

With a good signal, the box works well and is reliable.

HOWEVER, the clock display is 5 minutes adrift, with no means of correcting it apart from changing the time zone, which is useless. This makes setting a recording time a convoluted and long winded process.

Unless this has been fixed, I do not recommend the Nikkai A52HF.

Easy install and good price, the unit looks good and is compact..

For the price I bought it for £35.00 without hard drive it is a cheap digital reorder but I would rather buy one that does not have any hang ups next time..

Locks up in fast forward mode and have turn off and restart

The hard drive is noisy I have tried two different ones and it is still noisy..

Therefore I do not recommend Nikkai A52HF.

Continued.....Got a replacement unit from Maplin (updated design)However, the unit isn't much better. I've only had it a few weeks and it's already......a). Frozen once whilst fast forward/reviewing a recording (biggest problem with the old unit)b). Recorded the wrong program, despite being initiated through the EPG (Electronic Program Guide) ...which is supposedly fool proof!c). Frequently failed to update the EPG although my TV has no problem gathering the same Freeview information. d). Locked up whilst recording and would not respond to the remote control or front panel On/Off button.e). Recorded a program for over 8hrs(!!) when it was configured to record for just 2hrs.

So, in summary, this unit is going back too...... this time for a full refund.

I wouldn't advise anyone to buy this item!

I bought one of these units over 10months ago & have had nothing but problems with it since!Within the first few days, I noticed it had a tendency to lock-up whilst fast forwarding in play mode (only possible to recover by powering down the unit). Maplin have since added a note about the HD needing to be in master mode. However, mine was already correctly configured but still locked-up.The unit has 12 months warranty so thought I'd persevere. Within the past few weeks, it has failed completely & has permanently locked-up (internal flash screwed-up?). The unit has been returned for a replacement.Maplin are now selling a different style unit (under the same part No. A52HF) ....but is the firmware any better?? If not, that'll go back for a complete refund before my 12months are up.To be continued....

All that the above reviews mention and mine has just stopped working after 9 months. Switch on, 2 seconds of tv then freeze, no response to remote or buttons. It's absolute rubbish. The thing is I have 45 recorded programs to watch and have to buy another barebones one if I want to do so.

I purchased the Nikkai A52HF from Maplin many months ago for £49.95 - I know they are a tenner cheaper now... The Reason I purchased was that I had a spare 80gb fluid bearing drive (important if you are worried about the sound of the the hard drive 'whirring'!) kicking around...

Initially all seemed ok - initial installation went ok... As a basic Freeview receiver it works fine (apart from lack of interactive!) - but as it in bare bones form is double the price you should expect more! The PVR functionality is rubbish... It works - sometimes. You cannot rely on this unit to record your set program... There seems to be virtually no memory available to capture the full EPG - when you enter the full EPG you always have to wait for it to update before you can scroll forwards to set recordings... programming a record is fairly intuitive bad made unacceptably frustrating thanks to the buggy firmware which regularly keeps resetting to the current time and date when you are trying to scroll forwards to set a recording - all the time waiting for the EPG to update!

In summary the basic hardware is good value for money - but the firmware lets it down badly... There appears to be no way to upgrade the firmware - so you are stuck with it!

This has to be the worst example of a product that has reached the retail marketplace with a method of operating that ranges from frustrating to impossible to use!

Maybe you get what you pay for - but bear in mind if you are having to purchase a hard drive as well - you are in right in the middle of the fully equipped Freeview PVR's without all of the drawbacks above!

I can guarantee if you buy one of these your 'bargain' purchase will turn out to be rather poorer value for money than originally anticipated...

The Nikkai A52HF is a cheap recorder if you have a spare hard drive kicking around. Does not support MHEG5 which means that the interactive services don't work (red button services on the remote) Very annoying. Overall, I don't recommend buying this as it is now out dated.