Channels AND programs restored hurray. Only thing I changed was to tick (for a try) astc option (see screenshot)
Don't know what astc is but now got full pramme guide.
THanks all for your patience with me
Trevor
PS what does astc stand for doh
If that is what restored EPG data, then I am guessing you had setup your options to run ATSC over-the-air EPG loading, perhaps in addition to mc2xml option.
Go to TV Options, click "Load program guide...".
On the resulting dialog window, make sure the checkbox "Automatically load the program guide everyday in the background" is checked. Then take a good look at the list of EPG modes in the middle of the window. You should put check marks on only the modes that you want to use. In particular, you should probably not check "OTA" mode (if it is in the list) unless you know you want to use Over-the-air EPG mode for ATSC TV.
If OTA mode is not selected (checked) , or it is not even in the list, then the option "In Over-the-air EPG scan (ATSC only), save programs for channels with empty XMLTV IDs only" option is not relevant. Checking or unchecking it should not matter. It might have been a coincidence that "it fixed the issue".