that xmltv wants something I don't have a clue what it is ( sorry but seems to relate to a pay cable & I don't have that just an OTA antenna) & if it did retrieve a "cable guide'' I believe the channels numbers wouldn't be right? then do i manually correct them?
Sorry, I should have been more clear.
When you manually start "Load Program Guide...", you are given several choices. The top choice, "Download EPG automatically (recommended)" should be used normally (it actually uses a form of xmltv data). The second choice "Over the air signal (ATSC only)" is the only choice that does not use xmltv. The third choice "XMLTV" requires you to have some sort of data that you obtain from third-party supplier. If you do not know how to use it, that is fine. The next choice "mc2xml" uses a program called mc2xml to obtain such data. It is quite similar to choice 1.
So, with the first option, all you need to do is to supply the following: Country - United States, Postal Code - your zip code, and Provider - Digital Terrestrial Lineup. On the next step, you can try clicking "Auto Match" if you think some channels are not connected with their guide data. If necessary you can also do manual matching. For example, find your channel 13.1 and make sure it has guide data connected with it. If next to channel 13.1 are the words "(click here to configure)", you should click and choose correct guide data.