Disney+ without HDR: Premium subscription loses core feature

Luca Fontana

27/2/2026

Translation: machine translated

Dolby Vision gone, HDR10+ gone - and now HDR10 too. Disney+ currently lacks any HDR format in Europe. This has not been communicated. Nevertheless, the premium price remains.

Within a few weeks, Disney+ in Europe first dropped Dolby Vision, HDR10+ and 3D, allegedly due to «technical challenges». Now static HDR10 is also missing.

This means that HDR is no longer available, even with the expensive Premium subscription. Not even in Switzerland. This is reported by numerous tech portals from all over Europe, including 4KFilme from Germany. I can confirm these reports: Neither on my LG G5 nor on my LG C1 is the HDR logo activated on titles such as «Avatar 2», «Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2» or «Paradise».

Almost more serious is the communication - or rather: the lack of it. Proactive information to customers has not yet been provided. Instead, support pages such as this one here have been tacitly adapted. For a service in this price range, this is ... remarkable.

4K yes, HDR no - and for 23.40 francs a month

The fact is that all content is only available in SDR. Compared to HDR, highlights lose their impact, dark scenes their depth and contrasts their dynamism. In addition, compression artefacts and banding seem to occur more frequently in SDR with 4K resolution - even in titles that previously looked clean. Whether this means that the bit rate has also been tweaked cannot be proven without measured values. However, it is possible that the picture quality is worse without HDR.

In total, the deteriorations weigh heavily. Good SDR quality is the minimum requirement for a Premium subscription currently costing 23.40 francs per month. And HDR is not a nice extra, but also a key selling point: anyone who invests several thousand francs in a modern home cinema will not do so in order to watch SDR again at the end. If a service advertises with «4K UHD and HDR», but in fact no longer delivers this performance, this is not a nuance.

From a legal perspective, Disney is operating in a sensitive area. If HDR is explicitly listed as a feature in the booked tariffs, this constitutes a change in service. Nevertheless, according to reports from 4KFilme, extraordinary cancellations were apparently accepted via customer service. Streaming providers protect themselves with adjustment clauses in their general terms and conditions. However, if an advertised core feature is removed and the price remains unchanged, the argument becomes tenuous.

Disney says little, but removes a lot

In fact, the HDR problem at Disney has been simmering for some time. At the end of January, Dolby Vision disappeared in Germany and shortly afterwards in Switzerland. Heise linked this to a patent dispute between Disney and InterDigital, a US company that holds and licences thousands of patents in the field of mobile and video technologies. This is probably why there is currently no Dolby Vision and HDR10+ on the streaming platform.

However, Disney has never confirmed this connection. The company spoke vaguely to FlatpanelsHD about «technical challenges» and assured them that 4K UHD and HDR10 - the static HDR - would continue to be available. To date, this is the only official statement on the HDR issue. It wasn't even published as a customer letter and seems to be invalid today anyway.

It remains to be seen whether the patent dispute with InterDigital is actually behind this or whether other technical and licensing factors play a role. In Disney's communication vacuum - my enquiries have also gone unanswered so far - nothing has been confirmed or denied, let alone explained. There is currently little left of the premium promise.

Luca Fontana

Senior Editor

Luca.Fontana@digitecgalaxus.ch

I write about technology as if it were cinema, and about films as if they were real life. Between bits and blockbusters, I’m after stories that move people, not just generate clicks. And yes – sometimes I listen to film scores louder than I probably should.

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