A channel entry for a television channel looks like (all on one line, shown here split for clarity):

     321,"HorrorChannel",FALSE,FALSE,FALSE,,,TRUE,"A devilish mixture
     of cult favourites and new chillers. At least six horror films
     every day, from cutting edge independents to classics from the
     golden age, also the latest cinema film reviews."

A channel entry for a radio channel looks like:

     143,"BBC R4 LW",TRUE,,,,,TRUE,

The fields are:

1. Channel number, integer.
   Must contain data. Due to limitations with numbers (!), radio channels do not have a leading zero; this must be added manually if the channel has the 'radio' flag set.
    
   
2. The EPG (on-screen) channel name, string.
   Must contain data.
    
   
3. Radio station flag, boolean.
   TRUE if a radio station, FALSE if a TV station.
    
   
4. Interactive service flag, boolean.
   TRUE if the channel has interactive (red button) services, otherwise FALSE; or blank if not known.
   This flag has no meaning for radio channels.
    
   
5. Videotext service flag, boolean.
   TRUE if the channel has videotext (text button) services, otherwise FALSE; or blank if not known.
   This flag has no meaning for radio channels.
    
   
6. Teletext service flag, boolean.
   TRUE if the channel has teletext (in the VBI), otherwise FALSE; or blank if not known.
   This has no meaning for radio channels. This information is not currently available.
   Note that the teletext service is only to be included if the teletext broadcast actually contains content. Many BBC services just broadcast a message saying that teletext has been replaced by the interactive content - so this wouldn't count.
   This flag has no meaning for radio channels.
    
   
7. 24 hour flag, boolean.
   TRUE if the channel broadcasts 24 hours a day, FALSE if it does not; or blank if not known.
   Note that FTAChannels makes no distinction between FALSE and blank, it only shows if a channel is 24 hour or not.
    
   
8. Favourite, boolean.
   This is TRUE if the channel is one of my 'favourites'; otherwise blank (not false).
    
   
9. Description, string.
   The channel description. If none, should be blank and not an empty string.
   Please note:
   • Certain channels include text that could be construed as a form of 'promise'; for example "Wonderful" says "bringing solutions to the world's problems" (if only it were that easy!).
     The descriptions given are not personal endorsements; I simply copied the description as given by the channel itself.
   • There are no descriptions for telesales, telegame, and 'babe' channels. I have many more interesting things to spend my time on!
   • Telephone numbers and URLs are omitted from the descriptions.
   • If you notice a typo or something weird, please check with the channel description on your Digibox before telling me - I try to copy the descriptions exactly as given (including typos and weird stuff - like "world?s" in LONDONTV); but I'm not infallible...
   • There are no descriptions for radio channels; they will be added in due course.
   • If anybody in charge of updating the channel descriptions is reading this - please, for the sake of the English language as we know it, could you add - liberally - lots of dashes, semi-colons, and full stops? Such things tend to be somewhat lacking in the channel descriptions!

There is no record kept of which 'category' the channel falls into with respect to the EPG. While some channels are fairly easy to define; I fail to understand why Religion contains all of the Christian-based channels ("GOD Channel", "TBN Europe", "Wonderful", "DoveVision", etc), while "Islam Channel" (which sounds pretty religious to me!) is lumped in with the International channels. Perhaps somebody reading this can explain it to me?

To read channel descriptions, press the 'services' button, then press '5' to go to the favourite channels list. Select the desired channel and then press the 'i' button.

There is currently no data relating to the physical tuning. This may be added in due course, most likely in the following format (but not fixed):

1. .....existant channel data.....
    
   
2. -1, integer.
   This is a marker to say that frequency data is present.
    
   
3. Transponder number, integer.
    
   
4. Frequency, integer.
   In range 10750 to 12700.
    
   
5. Polarisation, string.
   "V"(ertical) or "H"(orizontal).
    
   
6. Symbol rate, integer.
   Either 22/22000 or 27/27500. Only the first two digits need to be read...
    
   
7. FEC, integer.
   FEC is <value>/<value+1>, therefore:
   2 = 2/3
   3 = 3/4
   5 = 5/6

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