- Dolby Vision and HDR10+ have vanished from Disney+ in several European countries
- Disney says technical challenges are to blame, but evidence suggests legal issues
- The timing aligns with a patent dispute involving InterDigital in Germany
- US support pages no longer mention Dolby Vision, raising wider concerns
Disney+ subscribers across Europe have noticed something troubling. Dolby Vision and HDR10+ have quietly vanished from the streaming service in several countries, sparking confusion, frustration and more than a little suspicion.
Disney says the issue is down to technical challenges. However, industry watchers and a growing number of reports suggest a legal battle may be the real reason behind the sudden downgrade in picture quality.
What began as a regional glitch is now starting to look like a much bigger problem, one that could potentially affect viewers beyond Europe, including the US.
What exactly has disappeared and where
The first reports came from Germany, where users noticed that Dolby Vision and HDR10+ were no longer available on supported TVs and devices. At the time, it looked like an isolated issue. That assumption didn’t last long.
Subscribers in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal and Poland soon reported the same thing. More recently, viewers in Nordic countries say the advanced HDR formats have disappeared there too.
Interestingly, some regions such as the UK still appear unaffected for now, with Dolby Vision continuing to show up on compatible titles.
Disney maintains that 4K UHD and standard HDR are still available, and that part is true. But for viewers with premium TVs, the loss of Dolby Vision and HDR10+ is not a small downgrade. These formats offer better dynamic metadata, improved contrast control and more accurate brightness scene by scene.
Technical problems or something more serious
Disney’s official explanation is straightforward. According to a statement shared with FlatpanelsHD, Dolby Vision support is temporarily unavailable in parts of Europe due to technical challenges, and engineers are working on restoring it.
That explanation might have been easier to accept if one key detail hadn’t raised eyebrows. Disney has quietly removed all references to Dolby Vision from its European support pages. Even more telling, those references have also disappeared from its US support pages.
That kind of website rewrite is unusual for a short term technical issue. Streaming services typically wait out bugs rather than erase mentions of major features entirely. This has led many to believe the real cause lies in an ongoing legal dispute rather than a backend streaming problem.
The patent dispute hanging over Disney+
At the center of the controversy is InterDigital, a company that licenses video and compression technologies used throughout the streaming industry. Disney is currently facing legal action in Germany over alleged patent infringement.
Crucially, Germany was the first country where Dolby Vision and HDR10+ disappeared. The timing also lines up closely with a ruling from the Regional Court in Munich, which ordered Disney to stop infringing a specific video compression patent in late 2025.
InterDigital has been clear about its position, stating that its innovations underpin the modern streaming ecosystem and that companies benefiting from its intellectual property are expected to pay for licenses. While Disney has not publicly linked the HDR removal to the lawsuit, it has also not denied the connection.
Adding to the pattern, Disney+ has also removed 3D movies in Europe that relied on Dolby Vision when viewed on Apple Vision Pro. That affects a smaller audience, but it reinforces the sense that this is a deliberate rollback rather than a random fault.
Why this matters and what could happen next
For European subscribers, the situation is frustrating. They are paying full price for a service that has quietly lost one of its flagship premium features. While standard HDR remains, it is not the same experience, particularly on high end TVs designed around Dolby Vision performance.
There is also concern about what happens next. If the removal is tied to legal risk, Disney could choose to disable Dolby Vision in other regions preemptively. The fact that US support pages no longer mention the format suggests that possibility cannot be ruled out.
For now, Disney insists the issue is temporary. But until Dolby Vision returns and official explanations become more transparent, many subscribers will remain skeptical.
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