Disney+ restores 4K after court ruling, while HDR return remains pending

Following a court ruling that deprived it of 4K and HDR, Disney has announced that these features are returning through an alternative technology. 4K is being restored on certain devices, while HDR support is still being developed. The issue affects several European countries, including France.

Because of a patent-related court decision, Disney+ was required to remove features from its Premium subscription, which costs €5 more than the €10.99 Standard plan. Specifically, it had to stop offering 4K resolution and HDR with the Premium tier, even though these two features were among its key advantages over the Standard subscription. This made it particularly difficult for Disney to justify the price difference between the two plans. However, the company has already announced a solution to the problem, which affects several European markets, including France and Germany.

Disney+ starts restoring 4K UHD streaming

In a statement reported by TechRadar, Disney says it has adopted an alternative technology that enables it to offer 4K UHD and HDR streaming again. The streaming service has already begun restoring 4K support. However, it warns that 4K may not yet be available on every device.

“We are aware of the inconvenience this may cause and are doing everything possible to extend 4K UHD support to more devices and restore HDR as quickly as possible,” the statement says.

In other words, while 4K has begun to return, the situation has not yet fully returned to normal. There is still no indication of when HDR will be restored.

Why was Disney deprived of 4K?

Disney has not disclosed the technical details of its alternative technology. Nevertheless, the removal of 4K and HDR from its offering followed a legal dispute between Disney and InterDigital over the High Efficiency Video Coding standard. InterDigital recently announced that it had secured an injunction against Disney from a pan-European court.

“The Düsseldorf Local Division of the UPC ruled that InterDigital is entitled to an injunction against Disney for infringement of an InterDigital patent covering certain HEVC-related video coding techniques, and confirmed the validity of that patent. The injunction issued against Disney extends to 11 EU countries, including France, Germany and Italy. Disney may appeal the decision,” InterDigital said in its statement.

An alternative video codec for Disney+ 4K

It is therefore likely that Disney+ has switched to a different standard in order to bypass this issue and provide 4K. German website Heise also reports that, on the Fire TV Cube, Disney+ delivers 4K using the VP9 codec.