Disney+ is bringing 4K back to Europe, but HDR will still be unavailable

The Disney+ company explained the situation in an official statement.

“We have adopted alternative technology to enable 4K UHD and HDR following a recent court ruling and have begun restoring 4K UHD support on Disney+. As a result, 4K UHD may not be available on some devices. We recognize the inconvenience this may cause and are working to expand device support for 4K UHD and restoring HDR as quickly as possible.”

What’s happening with 4K and HDR support

As a reminder, Disney+ has removed 4K and HDR features from its Premium plan in 11 countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, Romania and Sweden. Both features remained available in all other countries where the service operates, and the removal applied exclusively to streaming, while downloaded content was not affected.

The reason for this move lies in a court ruling resulting from a patent dispute with the company InterDigital over video encoding technology. To circumvent the ban, Disney+ stopped using the controversial HEVC (High-Efficiency Video Coding) codec and switched to Google’s VP9 video codec. With this, he managed to enable 4K streaming again, but HDR is next on the priority list. The company says that they are working on his return as soon as possible, but they cannot yet confirm when he will be available again.

Limited device support

The switch to the VP9 codec means that 4K resolution currently works only on devices that support that technology. Among them are Android TV and Google TV devices, Amazon Fire TV, LG TVs manufactured in 2020 and later, and Sky Glass and Sky Stream. However, users on some of the most popular platforms, such as Apple TV 4K, Samsung televisions and gaming consoles, are still unable to watch content in 4K resolution.

Options for affected users

If you are a subscriber in one of the affected countries and the lack of HDR is important to you, Disney+ states that you can switch to a cheaper package. Those who want to stay on the Premium plan, but are not satisfied with the loss of features, can request a partial refund for the current billing period. As TechRadar reports, this only applies to users who subscribed directly through Disney+. If you subscribed through a third party, such as the App Store, you must contact that company for a refund.

This case is not isolated and is only one in a series of similar legal battles being waged in the streaming industry. Patents for video and streaming technologies are extremely complex, and their owners often initiate lawsuits. There is an old saying in the entertainment industry that has proven to be true even in this digital age: where there’s a hit, there’s a bummer.