Following a legal dispute with InterDigital relating to HEVC video encoding patents, which recently led to the removal of Disney+’s 4K UHD resolution and high dynamic range (HDR10) streaming support within certain European markets (via FlatpanelsHD), it looks like the former of the two video features is gearing up for a relaunch.

As per Broadband TV News, users in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, and Sweden should start to see the return of 4K UHD streaming on Disney+ in the very near future, though the reintroduction of HDR10 is still a waiting game at this point in time.

Broadband TV News reports that Disney has switched to a different underlying technology to deliver 4K UHD to paid subscribers, which circumvents the aforementioned patent dispute with InterDigital, as well as the court ruling which impacted Disney’s ability to use its existing technological solution.

number of users

2-4

Subscription with ads

$11.99/month

Premium Subscription

$18.99/month

# of profiles

6+

Originals

Yes

Live TV

No

Disney+ is a popular streaming service that Disney launched in November 2019.

Returning with a different underlying technology in tow

Disney+ temporarily removed 4K UHD resolution and HDR10 support from several European markets following a court ruling back in late July. Users within impacted jurisdictions, then, have been unable to stream above standard Full HD (FHD) and standard dynamic range (SDR), even if they are paying for Disney+’s Premium subscription tier.

It’s worth noting that the United Patent Court granted InterDigital injunctions relating to HEVC video encoding specifically, meaning that users in impacted regions have still been able to download and play back 4K UHD content on their devices sans the streaming component of the experience.

To Disney’s credit, it appears to be bringing back the missing 4K UHD resolution to afflicted customers at a rapid rate, which is nice to see. Back in February, Dolby Vision HDR and 3D support also disappeared from Disney+ within certain European markets, which was reportedly the result of a video compression patent dispute. Fortunately, Dolby Vision and 3D promptly returned to the European Disney+ feature list as of mid-March of this year (via FlatpanelsHD).

There is a catch, however: Disney’s new 4K UHD workaround, which is rumored to be based on the VP9 codec, isn’t universally available across all smart devices. While it works on Android TV, Fire TV, and LG’s modern webOS platform, it doesn’t function on the Apple TV 4K, on Samsung’s Tizen-based TVs, or on certain video game consoles (via What Hi-Fi?). Hopefully, Disney is able to expand the scope of its workaround in short order, so as to avoid having users pay for features they can’t fully access.