diff --git a/tools/mtmd/mtmd-cli.cpp b/tools/mtmd/mtmd-cli.cpp
index a3cad7cd06..0ad000ef01 100644
--- a/tools/mtmd/mtmd-cli.cpp
+++ b/tools/mtmd/mtmd-cli.cpp
@@ -32,9 +32,9 @@ static volatile bool g_is_generating = false;
 static volatile bool g_is_interrupted = false;
 
 /**
- * Please note that this is NOT a production-ready stuff.
+ * Please note that this is NOT a production-ready binary.
  * It is a playground for trying multimodal support in llama.cpp.
- * For contributors: please keep this code simple and easy to understand.
+ * For contributors: please keep this code simple and easy to understand. Do not add unnecessary complexity. The goal is to have a simple CLI for testing multimodal support.
  */
 
 static void show_additional_info(int /*argc*/, char ** argv) {
@@ -65,6 +65,14 @@ static void sigint_handler(int signo) {
 }
 #endif
 
+// this is only used by tests.sh to capture the response ; it's not meant to be used in production
+static void inject_test_response_marker() {
+    const char * env = std::getenv("MTMD_TEST_RESPONSE_MARKER");
+    if (env) {
+        LOG("%s\n", env);
+    }
+}
+
 struct mtmd_cli_context {
     mtmd::context_ptr ctx_vision;
     common_init_result_ptr llama_init;
@@ -79,6 +87,8 @@ struct mtmd_cli_context {
     mtmd::bitmaps bitmaps;
     std::vector<mtmd_helper::video_ptr> videos;
 
+    mtmd::batch_ptr mbatch;
+
     // chat template
     common_chat_templates_ptr tmpls;
     std::vector<common_chat_msg> chat_history;
@@ -233,6 +243,8 @@ static std::string chat_add_and_format(mtmd_cli_context & ctx, common_chat_msg &
 }
 
 static int eval_message(mtmd_cli_context & ctx, common_chat_msg & msg) {
+    inject_test_response_marker();
+
     bool add_bos = ctx.chat_history.empty();
     auto formatted_chat = chat_add_and_format(ctx, msg);
     LOG_DBG("formatted_chat.prompt: %s\n", formatted_chat.c_str());
@@ -259,20 +271,95 @@ static int eval_message(mtmd_cli_context & ctx, common_chat_msg & msg) {
     ctx.bitmaps.entries.clear();
     ctx.videos.clear();
 
-    llama_pos new_n_past;
-    if (mtmd_helper_eval_chunks(ctx.ctx_vision.get(),
-                ctx.lctx, // lctx
-                chunks.ptr.get(), // chunks
-                ctx.n_past, // n_past
-                0, // seq_id
-                ctx.n_batch, // n_batch
-                true, // logits_last
-                &new_n_past)) {
-        LOG_ERR("Unable to eval prompt\n");
-        return 1;
-    }
+    // batch encode all media chunks, then decode each
+    size_t n_chunks = mtmd_input_chunks_size(chunks.ptr.get());
+    for (size_t i = 0; i < n_chunks; i++) {
+        auto chunk = mtmd_input_chunks_get(chunks.ptr.get(), i);
+        auto chunk_type = mtmd_input_chunk_get_type(chunk);
 
-    ctx.n_past = new_n_past;
+        if (chunk_type == MTMD_INPUT_CHUNK_TYPE_TEXT) {
+            // decode text chunk
+            llama_pos new_n_past = ctx.n_past;
+            res = mtmd_helper_eval_chunk_single(ctx.ctx_vision.get(),
+                        ctx.lctx,
+                        chunk,
+                        ctx.n_past,
+                        0, // seq_id
+                        ctx.n_batch,
+                        i == n_chunks - 1, // logits_last
+                        &new_n_past);
+            if (res != 0) {
+                LOG_ERR("Unable to eval text chunk %zu\n", i);
+                return 1;
+            }
+            ctx.n_past = new_n_past;
+        } else {
+            // media chunk: try to get embd from existing batch, or create a new batch
+            float * embd = nullptr;
+            if (ctx.mbatch) {
+                embd = mtmd_batch_get_output_embd(ctx.mbatch.get(), chunk);
+
+                if (embd) {
+                    LOG_DBG("found embd for media chunk %zu in existing batch\n", i);
+                } else {
+                    LOG_DBG("media chunk %zu not found in existing batch, creating new batch\n", i);
+                }
+            }
+
+            if (!embd) {
+                // create and encode a new batch with as many media chunks as possible
+                ctx.mbatch.reset(mtmd_batch_init(ctx.ctx_vision.get()));
+                res = mtmd_batch_add_chunk(ctx.mbatch.get(), chunk);
+                GGML_ASSERT(res == 0); // first chunk must always succeed
+
+                int n_added = 1;
+                // add as many subsequent media chunks as possible
+                for (size_t j = i + 1; j < n_chunks; j++) {
+                    auto next_chunk = mtmd_input_chunks_get(chunks.ptr.get(), j);
+                    auto next_type = mtmd_input_chunk_get_type(next_chunk);
+                    if (next_type == MTMD_INPUT_CHUNK_TYPE_TEXT) {
+                        break; // text chunk splits the batch
+                    }
+                    res = mtmd_batch_add_chunk(ctx.mbatch.get(), next_chunk);
+                    if (res != 0) {
+                        break; // batch full or incompatible
+                    }
+                    n_added++;
+                }
+
+                int64_t time_start = ggml_time_ms();
+                LOG_INF("encoding mtmd batch, n_chunks = %d (done = %zu, total = %zu)\n", n_added, i, n_chunks);
+                res = mtmd_batch_encode(ctx.mbatch.get());
+                if (res != 0) {
+                    LOG_ERR("Failed to encode mtmd batch, res = %d\n", res);
+                    return 1;
+                }
+                LOG_INF("mtmd batch encoding done in %d ms\n", (int)(ggml_time_ms() - time_start));
+
+                embd = mtmd_batch_get_output_embd(ctx.mbatch.get(), chunk);
+            }
+
+            GGML_ASSERT(embd != nullptr);
+
+            llama_pos new_n_past = ctx.n_past;
+            res = mtmd_helper_decode_image_chunk(ctx.ctx_vision.get(),
+                        ctx.lctx,
+                        chunk,
+                        embd,
+                        ctx.n_past,
+                        0, // seq_id
+                        ctx.n_batch,
+                        &new_n_past,
+                        nullptr, // callback
+                        nullptr  // user_data
+                    );
+            if (res != 0) {
+                LOG_ERR("Unable to decode media chunk %zu\n", i);
+                return 1;
+            }
+            ctx.n_past = new_n_past;
+        }
+    }
 
     LOG("\n");
 
diff --git a/tools/mtmd/tests.sh b/tools/mtmd/tests.sh
index 5da48d61bf..6fe26478ab 100755
--- a/tools/mtmd/tests.sh
+++ b/tools/mtmd/tests.sh
@@ -13,6 +13,8 @@ mkdir -p $SCRIPT_DIR/output
 PROJ_ROOT="$SCRIPT_DIR/../.."
 cd $PROJ_ROOT
 
+export MTMD_TEST_RESPONSE_MARKER="<MTMD_TEST_RESPONSE_MARKER>"
+
 # Check if the first argument is "big", then run test with big models
 # This is useful if we're running the script on a larger machine, so we can test the big models
 RUN_BIG_TESTS=false
@@ -28,6 +30,15 @@ if [ "${1:-}" = "huge" ]; then
     echo "Include BIG and HUGE models..."
 fi
 
+USE_VIDEO=false
+if [ "${1:-}" = "video" ]; then
+    USE_VIDEO=true
+    echo "Using video as input..."
+    # behavior of USE_VIDEO:
+    # do NOT check if the output contains "new york", only verify if the exit code is 0
+    # when printing the result, print the OK/FAIL line then print the generated text
+fi
+
 # Check if the second argument is "flash", then enable flash attention
 # This is useful to test if flash attention off works correctly
 FLASH_ATTN="on"
@@ -50,13 +61,20 @@ add_test_vision() {
     if [ $# -gt 0 ]; then
         extra_args=$(printf " %q" "$@")
     fi
+    if [ "$USE_VIDEO" = true ]; then
+        arr_file+=("test-3.mp4")
+    else
+        arr_file+=("test-1.jpeg")
+    fi
     arr_prefix+=("[vision]")
     arr_hf+=("$hf")
     arr_extra_args+=("$extra_args")
-    arr_file+=("test-1.jpeg")
 }
 
 add_test_audio() {
+    if [ "$USE_VIDEO" = true ]; then
+        return 0
+    fi
     local hf=$1
     shift
     local extra_args=""
@@ -166,19 +184,35 @@ for i in "${!arr_hf[@]}"; do
         cmd+=" -p \"what is the publisher name of the newspaper?\""
     fi
 
-    output=$(eval "$cmd" 2>&1 | tee /dev/tty)
+    exit_code=0
+    output=$(eval "$cmd" 2>&1 | tee /dev/tty) || exit_code=$?
 
     echo "$output" > $SCRIPT_DIR/output/$bin-$(echo "$hf" | tr '/' '-').log
 
-    # either contains "new york" or both "men" and "walk"
-    if echo "$output" | grep -iq "new york" \
-            || (echo "$output" | grep -iq "men" && echo "$output" | grep -iq "walk")
-    then
-        result="$prefix \033[32mOK\033[0m:   $hf"
+    if [ "$USE_VIDEO" = true ]; then
+        # for video, only check exit code; do not grep for "new york"
+        if [ $exit_code -eq 0 ]; then
+            result="$prefix \033[32mOK\033[0m:   $hf"
+        else
+            result="$prefix \033[31mFAIL\033[0m: $hf"
+        fi
+        # append generated text (after the response marker)
+        generated_text=$(echo "$output" | sed "1,/${MTMD_TEST_RESPONSE_MARKER}/d" | tail -10)
+        if [ -n "$generated_text" ]; then
+            result+="\n$generated_text"
+        fi
+        echo -e "$result"
     else
-        result="$prefix \033[31mFAIL\033[0m: $hf"
+        # either contains "new york" or both "men" and "walk"
+        if echo "$output" | grep -iq "new york" \
+                || (echo "$output" | grep -iq "men" && echo "$output" | grep -iq "walk")
+        then
+            result="$prefix \033[32mOK\033[0m:   $hf"
+        else
+            result="$prefix \033[31mFAIL\033[0m: $hf"
+        fi
+        echo -e "$result"
     fi
-    echo -e "$result"
     arr_res+=("$result")
 
     echo ""