If you are experiencing issues with 4K, HDR or audio on Disney+, you are not alone. Across multiple TV platforms, users are reporting persistent technical issues with the app.
Disney+ may be one of the biggest streaming services worldwide, but its technical reliability leaves much to be desired.
Back in 2021, many Android TV users suddenly found that 4K HDR and Dolby Atmos stopped working. Additionally, Dolby Atmos has come and gone with different app updates. In 2024, Apple TV 4K users started seeing major issues with 4K HDR matching.
App won't start
Around 3 months ago, Nvidia Shield users began reporting audio sync issues at 23.976Hz – the standard frame rate for films and series. Switching the device to 60Hz fixes it, but that is not ideal.
The situation is even worse on many Amazon Fire TV devices. Since August 20, the Disney+ app has been broken; it prompts for an update that does not exist, creating an endless loop because the notification cannot be closed. Some users have managed to fix it by reinstalling the app, but for many, this workaround does not seem to work, writes to 4KFilme.de.
4K and HDR issues
On Apple TV 4K, the initial issues started in 2024. However, a month ago, app update 4.08.0 made things much worse, with 4K HDR streaming no longer working properly due to frame rate matching being broken, resulting in video judder. The latest 4.10.0 release has not fixed the situation.
In fact, both frame rate matching and SDR/HDR/Dolby Vision matching are broken, and force-closing the app no longer helps like it used to. As a result, content falls back to 1080p SDR even for Premium subscribers. A temporary workaround is to set the Apple TV 4K to output 4K 24Hz Dolby Vision, which forces Disney's servers to deliver the correct format, but this can create problems in other apps.
A similar issue affects Samsung Smart TVs, and possibly other brands, where HDR is not working. It is not clear if 4K resolution is being delivered either, since Disney+ does not serve content in 4K SDR at all. At present, no workaround exists.
Problems tied to app updates
Most of the issues emerged after recent app updates – features that previously worked are now broken. Users must wait for Disney's engineers to roll out fixes.
All of this comes ahead of the planned full integration of Hulu into Disney+. The company recently said that the merger involves technical upgrades and new features in the app.
- Source: Reddit (2), 4KFilme
