diff --git a/doc/man/man1/notcurses-view.1.md b/doc/man/man1/notcurses-view.1.md
index 8bcb887bd..b61f318d5 100644
--- a/doc/man/man1/notcurses-view.1.md
+++ b/doc/man/man1/notcurses-view.1.md
@@ -40,6 +40,10 @@ area exactly. **scale** resizes the object so that the longer edge of the
 rendering area is matched exactly, and the other edge is changed to
 maintain aspect ratio. **none** uses the original image size.
 
+Blitters can be selected by pressing '0' through '8'. **NCBLIT_DEFAULT**
+corresponds to '0'. The various blitters are described in
+**notcurses_visual**.
+
 # NOTES
 
 Optimal display requires a terminal advertising the **rgb** terminfo(5)
@@ -50,6 +54,6 @@ fixed-width font with good coverage of the Unicode Block Drawing Characters.
 # SEE ALSO
 
 **notcurses(3)**,
-**notcurses_ncvisual(3)**,
+**notcurses_visual(3)**,
 **terminfo(5)**,
 **unicode(7)**
diff --git a/doc/man/man3/notcurses_visual.3.md b/doc/man/man3/notcurses_visual.3.md
index ed5730b6a..8b486839a 100644
--- a/doc/man/man3/notcurses_visual.3.md
+++ b/doc/man/man3/notcurses_visual.3.md
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
-% notcurses_ncvisual(3)
+% notcurses_visual(3)
 % nick black <nickblack@linux.com>
 % v1.4.4.1
 
 # NAME
-notcurses_ncvisual - notcurses multimedia
+notcurses_visual - notcurses multimedia
 
 # SYNOPSIS
 
diff --git a/src/lib/blitset.h b/src/lib/blitset.h
index 825f56b49..cb282f0d3 100644
--- a/src/lib/blitset.h
+++ b/src/lib/blitset.h
@@ -15,11 +15,15 @@ lookup_blitset(const struct notcurses* nc, ncblitter_e setid, bool may_degrade)
   }
   const struct blitset* bset = notcurses_blitters;
   while(bset->egcs){
-    if(bset->geom == setid){
+    if(bset->geom == setid && bset->blit){
       return bset;
     }
     ++bset;
   }
+  // handle other currently-invalid blitters via degrade
+  if(may_degrade){
+    return lookup_blitset(nc, NCBLIT_2x1, true);
+  }
   return NULL;
 }
 
diff --git a/src/view/view.cpp b/src/view/view.cpp
index f1ff00ba4..65486cada 100644
--- a/src/view/view.cpp
+++ b/src/view/view.cpp
@@ -106,6 +106,9 @@ auto perframe(struct ncplane* n, struct ncvisual* ncv,
       if(keyp == NCKEY_RESIZE){
         return 0;
       }
+      if(keyp >= '0' && keyp <= '8'){ // FIXME eliminate ctrl/alt
+        // FIXME change blitter -- how?
+      }
       return 1;
     }
   }
@@ -195,6 +198,7 @@ auto main(int argc, char** argv) -> int {
     std::cerr << "Notcurses was compiled without multimedia support\n";
     return EXIT_FAILURE;
   }
+  ncblitter_e blitter = NCBLIT_DEFAULT;
   int dimy, dimx;
   bool failed = false;
   {
@@ -214,6 +218,8 @@ auto main(int argc, char** argv) -> int {
       struct ncvisual_options vopts{};
       vopts.n = *stdn;
       vopts.scaling = scalemode;
+      vopts.blitter = blitter;
+      vopts.flags = NCVISUAL_OPTION_MAYDEGRADE;
       int r = ncv->stream(&vopts, &err, timescale, perframe, &frames);
       if(r < 0){ // positive is intentional abort
         std::cerr << "Error decoding " << argv[i] << ": " << nc_strerror(err) << std::endl;
@@ -228,6 +234,9 @@ auto main(int argc, char** argv) -> int {
           break;
         }else if(ie == 'q'){
           break;
+        }else if(ie >= '0' && ie <= '8'){
+          --i; // rerun same input with the new blitter
+          blitter = static_cast<ncblitter_e>(ie - '0');
         }else if(ie == NCKey::Resize){
           --i; // rerun with the new size
           if(!nc.refresh(&dimy, &dimx)){