I get this message: "Error executing grabber: Invalid byte 2 of 2-byte UTF-8 sequence."

This is a known bug in FreeGuide 0.10.9 when using the UK listings grabber. The bug report is here: Bug 305574. It is fixed in version 0.10.10 and later versions.

The easiest way to avoid this bug is to download the latest version of FreeGuide.

The second-easiest way (which is still quite easy) is to choose "ISO 8859-1 (Latin 1)" as your character encoding when running the "Choose Channels for XMLTV" configuration step for the UK grabber.

Detailed instructions:

Click Tools and then Choose channels for XMLTV:

Click OK in the dialog that pops up, then choose ISO 8859-1 (Latin 1) for your encoding:

Now continue the configuration process as normal, then click Download Listings and the download should now work correctly.