How Awesome Video Player's MultiView Works for Watching Multiple Videos at Once

Updated

Awesome Video Player (AVPlayer) is a free Windows and Mac desktop player built around MultiView, which plays up to 16 videos simultaneously on a single screen. Each video keeps its own controls (play/pause, fast forward, rewind, fullscreen, volume, repeat, aspect), and you manage your collection with playlists and keyboard shortcuts. It fits anyone who wants to watch or monitor several videos side by side without opening multiple player windows and dragging them into place.

What MultiView actually does

The core claim on the site is straightforward: instead of playing one file at a time in Windows Media Player or VLC, AVPlayer loads multiple videos into one window, up to 16 per screen. The site describes the layout as feeling "just like Minority Report" — a grid of simultaneously playing videos rather than a single frame.

Two supporting features make this practical:

  • SmartDecode: combines GPU and CPU decoding, with GPU acceleration to keep CPU usage down as the number of playing videos grows.
  • Format support: the site states it plays "all existing video formats," so you generally don't need to convert files before adding them to a multi-video layout.

Controlling multiple videos

The site is explicit that control is per video, not global-only. For each video in the grid you get play/pause, fast forward, rewind, fullscreen, volume, repeat, and aspect ratio adjustment. That matters when, for example, you want one video looping as background while you scrub through another.

Because juggling 16 videos with a mouse is impractical, AVPlayer emphasizes keyboard shortcuts — the site frames this as "all the keyboard shortcuts you'll ever need" so your hands stay off the mouse. The page does not list the specific key bindings, so check the app itself after installing.

Playlists for repeat setups

Playlists let you save a set of favorite videos and reload them instantly, which is the feature to use if you watch the same group of files regularly — a monitoring wall, a set of clips you compare, or a recurring viewing session. Rather than re-adding files each time, you load the playlist and the layout comes back.

Where it fits — and where it doesn't

Your goal Does AVPlayer fit?
Watch several local video files at once on one screen Yes — core MultiView use case
Keep CPU load manageable with many videos playing Yes — GPU/CPU decoding is designed for this
Reopen the same set of videos quickly Yes — via playlists
Control each video independently Yes — per-video controls plus shortcuts
Host, share, or stream video to others No — this is a local desktop player, not a hosting platform

If your need is publishing or sharing video with an audience, a hosting platform is the right category and AVPlayer isn't a substitute. If your need is watching your own collection in parallel on your own machine, that's exactly what it's built for.

Getting started

  1. Go to the site's Download section and get the Windows or Mac build. The site describes the player as 100% free with no ads or spyware; an "Upgrade" link also appears in the navigation, so treat the free download as the starting point and review any upgrade offer on its own terms.
  2. Install and open AVPlayer.
  3. Add your videos — either load files directly into the MultiView layout or open a saved playlist if you've set one up.
  4. Arrange the videos in the grid (up to 16) and use the per-video controls or keyboard shortcuts to manage playback.
  5. Save the arrangement as a playlist so you can reload it next time.

Expected result: multiple videos playing at once in one window, each independently controllable.

Common snags to expect: performance depends on your hardware once you approach the 16-video limit, since decoding load scales with the number of streams; and because the site doesn't publish the shortcut list, plan a few minutes to learn the keys in-app.