(Image courtesy of IGN. “The Walt Disney Company released Disney+ for global audiences six years ago.”)
Maxi France
Connector Editor
The Walt Disney Company has removed the screen technologies 4K and HDR10 from Disney+, decreasing its picture quality for customers in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania and Sweden. This decision comes after the the Mannheim Local Division of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) issued an injunction against the company on June 16, 2026, ruling that Disney used patented technology held by research and development company InterDigital without the appropriate license. Disney has appealed the ruling.
The technology includes High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) techniques, which Disney uses to encode and stream 4K and HDR10 content.
Following the ruling, Disney removed 4K and HDR10 support from Disney+ in the affected countries. Prime Video continues to offer 4K and HDR content after Amazon reached a licensing agreement with InterDigital.
In addition, Disney has also removed Dolby Vision and 3D imaging across Europe from Disney+ because of the ruling. Now, viewers in affected countries will not be able to see enhanced features on their televisions through Dolby Vision HDR nor will they be able to watch 3D movies on Disney+. 4K, HDR10, Dolby Vision and 3D are all included in the premium subscription for Disney+, meaning that customers in the affected countries may not currently have access to some features included with their subscription.
For their troubles, subscribers who experienced the removal of these services but who are still paying for unfulfilled services can ask their appropriate provider to be refunded. In addition, premium subscribers in Germany can easily cancel their subscriptions.
Disney assured customers affected that they are making efforts to restore support. The company has implemented a workaround in place of 4K UHD on Disney+ Premium after it was removed because of the patent ruling. Disney+ has released for customers a VP9 (video pixel 9) video codec to bring back 4K streaming in affected countries. This is a video coding format that Google originally created that allows Disney to provide customers with 4K resolution. VP9 is the ninth generation of the video codec family, and Google released the format on June 17, 2013.
Disney said the technology supports certain television devices. These consist of LG, Phillips, Sky Glass, and Sony televisions, as well as Amazon Fire televisions. However, Disney also said that not every device is compatible with the VP9 video codec format. The format is unavailable on Apple televisions, Samsung televisions and video game consoles. This means that while the VP9 video codec has been released to the public, customers without the appropriate devices might not be able to stream 4K via the alternative format Disney has provided.
Though Disney has brought back 4K UHD on televisions and other devices following the ruling, the company has yet to explain to the public a solution for how to bring back HDR10, Dolby Vision, and 3D imaging to affected customers. It is also unclear if Disney has plans to find a way to bring 4K UHD to devices that are incompatible with the VP9 format. This story is developing.
