The withdrawal of Dolby Vision and other HDR features at Disney has surprised subscribers in several European countries.Users from Germany, Portugal, Poland, France and the Netherlands have noticed the disappearance of these advanced technologies, which directly affects the visual quality of series and movies on the platform.
Disney has confirmed the situation and claims to be working to restore access to Dolby Vision, although details about the cause and duration of the problem remain unclear.
According to a statement from Disney, support for Dolby Vision in its content is not available in several European countries due to “technical challenges.”The company has stated that it is “actively working to restore access to Dolby Vision and will provide an update as soon as possible. Support for 4K UHD and HDR remains available on compatible devices.”
However, the removal of any mention of Dolby Vision on the video quality support page in Germany has increased user concern, as for now only HDR10 is mentioned as the default format.
It should be noted that this move marks an important change, considering that DolbyVision has been a standard feature at Disney for years.
Although Disney has attributed the withdrawal of Dolby Vision to technical issues, FlatpanelsHD suggests that the real cause could be legal.In November 2025, a German court order ruled in favor of the company InterDigital, which accused Disney of infringing at least one of its patents related to video streaming technology.
The order directs Disney to stop using a specific method of dynamically overlaying one video sequence with another, for example, to display subtitles.
Although the direct link between this patent and Dolby Vision has not been clarified, the temporal coincidence would explain why German users were the first to detect the absence of this advanced function.
It is not only Germany that faces this loss.Advanced HDR features have also disappeared for subscribers in Portugal, Poland, France and the Netherlands, according to TechRadar and FlatpanelsHD.
Additionally, Disney has removed references to Dolby Vision even on the US version of its support page, suggesting that the cut could extend to more regions if the situation is not resolved.For now, HDR10 is still available as an alternative, although it does not offer the same image quality as Dolby Vision.
InterDigital has not obtained a court order in the United States, but maintains a patent lawsuit against Disney in the District Court for the Central District of California.
This scenario does not imply that American users will lose DolbyVision immediately, but it makes it clear that the background of the problem goes beyond a simple technical failure and could be related to complex international litigation.
The unexpected disappearance of Dolby Vision at Disney has left many European subscribers frustrated, especially those looking for the best picture quality on their compatible devices.
Meanwhile, Disney has not offered specific deadlines for resolution nor has it announced compensation for those affected.The case highlights the vulnerability of streaming services to legal and technological disputes that are beyond the control of users, who now see the experience for which they paid diminished.
