Watch more than one channel
Use Multi-view’s tile menu, group/channel selector, layouts and audio focus—and understand the options that depend on your device.
Options depend on your plan, profile, installed build and provider. Understand access. Screenshots use fictional demonstration data; a preview layout can differ slightly from a public build.
#Check capacity first
Each playing tile can consume a provider connection and a hardware decoder. The app limits screen count using the box’s capabilities; a fast PC emulator is not a TV performance benchmark. A device report is not a guarantee that every mix of codecs/resolutions will play smoothly. Multi-view also depends on your app access.
#Build a view
Open Multi-view from the fullscreen Live quick menu, or its available app entry. Opening it from a playing channel starts with that channel and an empty second tile.
- Use LEFT/RIGHT to select the tile you want to configure. The highlighted tile is the target of its menu.
- Press OK to open that tile’s menu. A touch/click on a tile selects it and opens the menu too; a long press is not required.
- Choose Choose a channel for an empty tile, or Change channel for a tile already playing.
- In the channel selector, choose a group and channel, then return to the multi-screen view. Repeat for other tiles.
Multi-view has its own controls: it is not the fullscreen Live hold-OK menu. While its menu or selector is open, arrows operate that layer rather than switching between video tiles.
#Choose groups, then channels
The selector has Groups on the left and channels on the right. All channels is first, followed by available groups from the browsing playlist. Favourites is included when saved channel favourites exist. The current programme can appear beneath each channel name when matching EPG is stored.
- Press LEFT to focus Groups. Use UP/DOWN to highlight All channels, Favourites or a provider group.
- Press OK to load the selected group and move to its channels.
- Use UP/DOWN to choose a channel, then OK to play it in the tile being configured.
- Press RIGHT to move from Groups to an already populated channel column; LEFT returns to Groups.
- For a long channel list, PAGE UP/DOWN or CHANNEL UP/DOWN moves ten entries at a time when those keys are available.
If a group is still loading or has no channels, the selector keeps/returns focus to Groups instead of moving into an empty column. Choose another group or allow its data to load. A blank programme subtitle is not necessarily a missing stream.
#Change a channel without rebuilding the view
Select the existing tile, press OK → Change channel, then choose a different group/channel. Other tiles stay separate. BACK from the selector cancels that selection step without replacing the tile’s existing channel. The selector is not the cloud playlist editor and does not edit provider credentials.
#Grid versus spotlight
Grid gives tiles comparable sizes. Spotlight puts the selected tile in the large picture with the other tiles in a strip below. With three or more tiles, open a tile’s menu and select Layout to toggle between them. In spotlight, LEFT/RIGHT selects and promotes another tile into the large position.
Layout changes arrangement, not provider quality or decoder capacity. It does not add a screen. If your box allows only two tiles, this menu choice is not offered.
#Full screen, remove and BACK
Full screen opens the selected channel in the ordinary player, where its normal playback controls are available. Remove screen releases that tile’s player and reduces the number of tiles; it does not delete a provider channel or a favourite. BACK first closes an open channel selector, then an open menu; with neither open it leaves Multi-view.
#Which player engine does Multi-view use?
Multi-view tiles use ExoPlayer. If your normal Live TV engine is mpv, the app can show a notice that it substituted ExoPlayer because mpv cannot supply several independent tile players. Your ordinary Live engine preference is retained for normal/fullscreen playback.
There is no per-tile mpv/ExoPlayer switch in the Multi-view tile menu. The engine switch documented in the fullscreen tutorial belongs to the normal player, not this selector.
#If extra screens buffer or go black
Reduce the number of tiles and try lower-resolution channels. Check provider connection allowance as well as available decoders and network throughput. A tile can show its own stream error. Do not increase a locally entered connection count unless the provider actually permits it. An empty tile that has not been assigned a channel is different from a failing assigned stream.
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