Has Disney quietly dropped Dolby Vision support in Europe? That’s what reports across Reddit and several media outlets are now suggesting. After Dolby Vision and HDR10+ first disappeared from Disney+ streams in Germany, viewers in multiple other European countries are reporting that the premium formats have vanished there as well.
Disney says the issue is down to “technical challenges,” but as FlatpanelsHD notes, the underlying cause may be legal rather than technical.
Disney is currently facing a patent infringement lawsuit in Germany, and the timing is hard to ignore. Germany was the first country to lose Dolby Vision and HDR10+, with the formats disappearing in late 2025 shortly after the Munich Regional Court ordered Disney to stop infringing a specific video compression patent. Now, similar reports are emerging from elsewhere in Europe.
The case of the vanishing Dolby formats
On Reddit, Disney+ subscribers in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Poland say Dolby Vision and HDR10+ are no longer available. Viewers in Nordic countries are reporting the same issue. At the time of writing, however, Dolby Vision still appears to be working normally on Disney+ in the UK.
In a statement shared with FlatpanelsHD, Disney said:
“Dolby Vision support for content on Disney+ is currently unavailable in several European countries due to technical challenges. We are actively working to restore access to Dolby Vision and will provide an update as soon as possible. 4K UHD and HDR support remain available on supported devices.”
However, FlatpanelsHD also points out that Disney+ has removed all references to Dolby Vision from its European support pages. More notably, mentions of Dolby Vision have also disappeared from Disney+ support pages in the US — raising questions about whether this issue could eventually extend beyond Europe.
That detail strengthens the argument that the situation is linked to the ongoing patent dispute. It would be unusual for a streaming service to rewrite its support documentation across regions in response to a temporary technical glitch.
Disney+ has also removed 3D movies in Europe that rely on Dolby Vision when viewed on Apple Vision Pro, though this change affects a smaller segment of users than TV and streaming app viewers.
The company behind the lawsuit, InterDigital, previously issued a statement suggesting Disney has failed to license essential intellectual property. “Our innovation underpins the viability of the entire streaming industry,” the company said last year. “We expect those who benefit from the use of our IP to pay for a license to it.”
Disney has not confirmed that the removal of Dolby Vision and HDR10+ is related to the legal case — but it hasn’t denied it either. If legal concerns are indeed the driving factor, the situation could worsen, with Disney potentially preemptively removing the feature in additional regions to avoid further litigation.
Regardless of the cause, the outcome is frustrating for European subscribers. Customers are still paying full price for Disney+ while losing access to a key premium feature — even if 4K resolution and standard HDR support remain available.
