Disney+ without Dolby Vision: Disney says there are "technical challenges"

Disney describes the lack of Dolby Vision on the Disney+ streaming service as “technical challenges.” However, in its statement to FlatpanelsHD, the company does not elaborate on how these challenges came about. It neither confirms nor denies that a legal dispute with InterDigital could be responsible. Meanwhile, Disney has also deactivated the dynamic HDR formats in other European countries.

At the end of January, heise online reported that users of the video streaming service Disney+ in Germany, despite a premium subscription, can no longer access content with video in the dynamic HDR formats Dolby Vision and HDR10+, but at best in the static basic form HDR10. Disney+ failed to provide any information about the reason for the omission, and the company did not respond to an inquiry from heise online. However, much suggests that a patent dispute with the US company InterDigital is behind it. For example, the Munich Regional Court ruled last November that Disney+ infringes InterDigital's rights when streaming videos with dynamic HDR images. The court issued a preliminary injunction against the streaming service, as stated in a press release from InterDigital.

Now Disney has sent a written statement to the Danish website FlatpanelsHD regarding the omission of Dolby Vision – with little informative content: According to the statement, “technical challenges” are the trigger for the current situation. Disney does not comment on what these challenges specifically entail. Disney further writes verbatim: “We are actively working to restore access to Dolby Vision and will provide an update as soon as possible. Support for 4K UHD and HDR will remain available on supported devices.”

Problem is spreading

Meanwhile, the phenomenon is spreading further and further: Since the beginning of the month, users of Disney+ in other European countries such as France, Belgium, Portugal, and Poland have also been reporting that they can no longer access content with Dolby Vision images. A corresponding report also appeared on the Dutch website Tweakers. In line with this, the references to the dynamic HDR format have disappeared from the websites of Disney+ subsidiaries in other countries and even in the USA. Heise online was only able to find a reference to Dolby Vision on a few Disney+ pages worldwide – for example, for users in Mexico, El Salvador, or Australia.

The suspicion is that Disney is acting proactively to prevent InterDigital from taking legal action against the company in other countries due to possible patent infringement regarding the use of Dolby Vision. However, this is not confirmed. Heise online has again asked Disney for a statement.

Open questions

Readers had contacted the editorial team of Mac & i, who can no longer access 3D movies via the Disney+ app in Germany on their Apple Vision Pro. The 3D videos were previously a flagship feature for Apple's VR headset. These contents are still available in some other countries where Dolby Vision is no longer accessible. Furthermore, Disney+ informed FlatpanelsHD that it has not offered HDR10+ in Europe, so this format cannot have been omitted. Users had previously reported that HDR10+ was previously available on Samsung TVs.

According to FlatpanelsHD, there is no indication of when Dolby Vision will be available again on Disney+. However, if the current action is a reaction by Disney to the patent dispute, it is to be feared that the company also does not expect to be able to resolve the matter quickly.

(nij)