Multiview

Starting it

Multiview is for live channels. Start it from any of these:

• The player. Click Add a tile for multiview in the controls, or right-click the video and choose Add to multiview. Then pick a channel to go next to the one you’re watching. On a TV, the player’s Multiview button opens Add a tile next to the picture. What’s playing stays on screen as tile 1, and it’s never left out when you add more.
• Live TV. Right-click a channel and choose Watch in multiview. On a TV, press the Menu key or hold OK on the channel. The channel playing in the preview becomes the first tile, or joins the channels you kept.
• A game’s page in Sports. Click Watch 2 feeds side by side. It shows when the game has more than one feed.
• The Sports screen, on a computer. Click Multiview on a game to pick it. The tray at the foot says how many games are picked, with Watch in multiview and Clear.

To add another, click Add a tile in the bar at the top, or the first empty place, which says Add a tile too. Type a channel name or number and press Enter. The picker finds channels the way search does, even with a typo, and a channel your provider lists more than once shows as one row. If a closer spelling finds more, Did you mean shows above the list: click it, or press Down to it and Enter. Channels that can’t open right now are dimmed, with the reason.

On a computer, the picker is a see-through panel over the playing tiles, so you can watch while you choose. It has a Channels tab and a Sports tab with the games on now and about to start, and it reopens on the tab you used last. Pick a game that has more than one feed and Theia asks Choose a feed, so you decide which channel goes in the tile. A game with one feed is added straight away.

When every tile is in use and you send multiview another channel, it asks which tile to replace.

On a TV, Add a tile and the player’s Multiview button open Live TV, the same groups, list and Guide you browse every day, with the sound tile’s picture still playing in the preview. The header says Choose a channel to add, or which tile you’re choosing for with Change channel. With one tile left, the screen offers Open in player or Add a tile. A tile that is reconnecting says so and offers Retry.

• Press OK on a channel to pick it. You’re back in multiview with the new tile selected.
• A channel that’s already on a tile is marked In tile N, and picking it changes nothing.
• Back returns to multiview with nothing changed.
• To start from a game, use the Multiview button on it in Sports.

Right-click a tile, press the Menu key, or click the Options button on the selected tile, for Full screen, Hear this tile, Open in player, Change channel, Close tile and ways to move it. Full screen makes one tile big inside multiview, and Back goes to the tiles. Open in player leaves multiview and plays that channel in the normal player. A tile that stopped lists what it can try there too. Closing the last tile closes multiview.

Layouts

Pick a layout in the bar at the top of multiview, or press L to go through them. Each button shows how the tiles will look, and the bar offers the layouts that fit your tiles and your device. The free preview has Side by side and Picture in picture.

• Side by side, 2 by 2, 3 by 2, 4 by 2 and 3 by 3 make every tile the same size.
• 1 big, 3 small and 1 big, 5 small make one tile bigger than the rest.
• Picture in picture fills the screen with one tile and floats up to three others over it.

Add more tiles than a layout holds and Theia moves to one that fits.

With a mouse

• Drag a tile onto another to swap them, or to an edge or corner to make it the big one there. An outline shows where it lands.
• Drag the line between tiles to resize.
• In picture in picture, drag a small tile where you want it. Dropped near an edge, it moves against it, and it never covers another small tile. Drag its inner corner to make it Small, Medium or Large. Click a small tile to bring it up big, with its sound, and press Swap in the bar to trade the big tile with the next one.
• Right-click a tile for Make this the main tile, in a layout with a big tile, and Move tile, which moves it with the arrow keys: Enter puts it down and Esc puts it back. A small tile in picture in picture has Move or resize instead, with its corners and sizes. The arrows take it through eight spots, the corners and the middle of each edge. Enter goes on to its size, Left and Right choose Small, Medium or Large, and Enter saves. Esc goes back a step.
• Once you’ve moved tiles yourself, the layout shows as Custom, and Reset layout in the bar puts things back. Multiview remembers your layout.

On a TV

• Press OK on a playing tile for Full screen. The other tiles keep playing out of sight, and a note says how to get back. Press OK or Back to return to the tiles. The arrows do nothing while one tile fills the screen. On a tile that is paused or has stopped, and in picture in picture, OK brings up the controls and OK again opens the tile’s options, where Play, Retry and the other choices are.
• The tile your remote is on has a white frame. The tile with the sound has a thin outline in gold, or in the accent color you picked. In the tiled layouts the sound follows the highlight, so moving to a tile lets you hear it. A TV has no speaker buttons.
• Hold OK to pick a tile up, move it with the arrows, then press OK to put it down or Back to cancel.
• In picture in picture, Left and Right swap the big picture with the next one, and the sound goes with the one that comes up. The bar’s Swap button does the same. A small picture you pinned stays put and is skipped.
• Pin here is in a small picture’s options. Unpin puts it back in the rotation. Changing the layout unpins everything and says so.
• Quick switch is a choice in the layout list, offered where picture in picture is. One channel fills the screen and Left and Right move through the rest, with the sound. Every channel keeps playing, so it needs the same memory and connections as multiview. It lasts until you leave multiview.
• Hold OK on the small picture to place it. A hint, Hold OK Move or resize, shows by it while it’s selected. The arrows take it through eight spots, OK goes on to its size, Left and Right choose Small, Medium or Large, and OK saves. Back goes back a step. With only one small picture, hold OK on the big one to place it. Multiview remembers where you put it.
• Press the Menu key, or Down to the tile’s Options button, for more: Volume, Pause, Full screen, Open in player, Change channel, Move tile, Remove tile and Show playback logs. In picture in picture there is Listen or Mute too. Up or Back goes back to the tile.
• Press Up from the top row for the layouts.

On an iPhone or iPad

• Double-tap a tile for Full screen, or choose Full screen in the tile’s menu. The picture fills the whole screen with nothing over it. Tap once to see the channel’s name and a back arrow for a few seconds. Tap the arrow, or swipe down, to go back to the tiles.
• Swipe down on the tiles, or use the Leave button in the bar, and Theia asks Leave multiview? and you can leave, stay, or open the channel you’re hearing in the normal player. Leaving ends the set, so the tiles don’t come back the next time you start multiview.

How many tiles

Premium shows up to 9 at once. Each tile uses one stream from your provider, and Theia keeps them inside your plan’s limit. See Connections.

A computer plays up to 9, or 4 when its tiles decode in software, as they do with Video decoding set to Software. Theia says so when that happens. A TV plays as many as its memory and video hardware allow, up to 9: a 1 GB stick plays 2, a 2 GB box 4 and a 3 GB box 6. Multiview tiles in Settings > Playback sets fewer on a TV.

If the device can’t keep up, a note says so and offers to close a tile. Small tiles play a lighter copy of a channel when there is one, and go back to the best copy when you make them big or full screen.

The bar

The bar at the top fades away after a few seconds, the way the player’s controls do. Hide the controls after in Settings > Playback sets how long it waits. Move the mouse to bring it back, or on a TV press any key. That first key only brings the bar back, apart from Left and Right in picture in picture, which swap at once. Up from the top row reaches the bar, and in picture in picture Up reaches it from anywhere. On a TV the bar fits the screen with every label whole, and has no window Full screen button, since a TV is always full screen.

Sound and full screen

One tile plays sound at a time. Click a tile to hear it, or move to it with the arrow keys and press M. On a TV, move to a tile to hear it. In picture in picture, Left and Right bring a tile up with its sound, or choose Listen in its options. OK for full screen keeps the sound with that tile.

To fill the screen with one tile, double-click it or press Enter or F. The others keep playing out of sight. Press Enter again to go back to the tiles. Ctrl 1 to Ctrl 9 jumps straight to a tile.

Esc steps back one level at a time: out of window full screen, from a full-screen tile back to the tiles, then out of multiview. On a computer, the full screen button in the bar puts the whole window in full screen.

On a computer, Mini player in the bar, or P, puts the tile you hear in a small window on top of other apps, and the other tiles keep playing.

Connections

Every tile uses one connection to your provider, the same as watching on another device. If your plan allows two streams and a TV in another room is using one, only one tile will open.

Connections in the bar shows each source’s limit and how many connections are free. For Xtream logins Theia asks your provider, so streams on your other devices count too. Starting multiview doesn’t open it. If your tiles would go past a source’s limit, Theia says so once, names the source and says what happens. Tick Don’t remind me again to stop that.

Each source has its own connections. With two sources, tiles from both can get you past a low limit.

When a source’s connections are all in use:

• The channel picker says so, next to that source’s channels.
• A tile that can’t open says why and offers what can help, such as Close another tile, Retry and Close tile. When the same channel is on another source, Try another source is there too. The other tiles keep playing.
• If your provider refuses a tile, its limit is probably reached, even when Theia thought a connection was free. Stop watching on another device, then Retry.

If Theia doesn’t know your limit, it asks when you add a second tile from the same source. You can also set it yourself: see Streams allowed.

Leaving and coming back

Leaving multiview stops the tiles and gives their connections back. Theia keeps your channels, their order, the sound and your layout on this device, so the next time multiview opens, they come back. It never opens by itself.

• On a TV, Back asks Leave multiview? Keep channels is already selected, Close channels lets them go, and Stay keeps watching. Back on the question stays.
• The bar’s Back button, Esc and any other way out keep the channels too, such as pressing Home on a TV.
• Close all channels, in a tile’s options, leaves and keeps nothing.
• While channels are kept, Continue watching on Home starts with a Multiview card. Open it to bring them back, or choose Close channels from its menu.
• Start multiview from a channel while some are kept and it joins them as a new tile. With no room, Theia asks which tile it replaces.
• Channels come back under the usual limits. A tile whose source has no connection to spare comes back paused, with Play on it. Channels that don’t fit, such as a third in the free preview, stay kept until you change the tiles.

A first tile that came from the Live TV preview goes back to playing there when you leave.

The free preview

Without Premium, multiview shows 2 tiles for 30 minutes a day. The time only runs while more than one tile is open, and it resets at midnight. The bar shows how much is left, with a quiet note when 5 minutes remain.

When it runs out, the tile with the sound keeps playing full screen, and the other tile closes and gives back its connection. A short Premium offer appears over the player; dismiss it, or go to Premium to keep watching both, with up to 9 tiles and no time limit.