Skip to main content

Is Disney+ skimping on its HDR video quality? Some experts say yes


The amazing brightness and shadows that come from High Dynamic Range (HDR) have to be seen to be believed. But seeing HDR is something you can’t always do — because content providers may be short-changing you.

Experts at HDTVTest accuse Disney+ of delivering HDR content that doesn’t meet the expectations of brightness and contrast normally associated with HDR material. The basis for the claim? Vincent Teoh and his colleague Adam Fairclough screened The Mandalorian and assessed the footage for its peak nits. That’s geek-speak for maximum brightness, one of the biggest telltale indicators that what you’re seeing on-screen is genuine HDR material. For standard dynamic range material, peak brightness often falls anywhere from 100 to 500 nits. HDR content should exceed that by a lot, ending up somewhere in the 800-1,000 nits range or higher, assuming your TV is capable of such a level.

Teoh and Fairclough found that during scenes of The Mandalorian in which they expected to see moments of high brightness, like a flash of blaster fire, or sunlight glinting off The Mandalorian‘s helmet, brightness didn’t exceed 200 nits.

We reached out to Teoh to get his perspective on what might be going on here and to find out what gear he and Fairclough used for their tests. They used an LG C9 OLED 4K TV with a peak brightness of 700 nits. The show was then streamed from both the internal TV app, and an Xbox One X in both HDR10 and Dolby Vision to make sure the results were consistent.

Teoh’s initial results were taken from the first two episodes of The Mandalorian. After we spoke to Teoh, he analyzed the third episode and found several peak highlights that managed to hit 400 nits. Still dark by HDR standards, but certainly brighter.

For the moment, Teoh’s standing by the evidence shown in the HDTVTest video.  “Many comments within the YouTube section on our video have echoed our observations,” he said.

It’s worth noting that despite what Teoh has observed, Digital Trends recently reviewed Disney+ and did not find its HDR video quality lacking, though, admittedly, we did not perform the in-depth, meter-based tests that Teoh undertook.

We know that Disney+ has had issues getting Dolby Atmos audio to play consistently on devices that support the surround sound format, so it may be that something similar is happening with its HDR content.

Digital Trends reached out to Disney+ for its take on the analysis. Contrary to Teoh’s findings, we were told that The Mandalorian “is available in true HDR” with brightness values that exceed 200 nits.

Company reps suggested that a lack of brightness could be an artistic choice on the part of the creative team. Could Jon Favreau and his team of filmmakers have kept The Mandalorian dark on purpose? We’ve asked Disney+ to reach out to the production team on our behalf to see if the choice was intentional.

Lending some credibility to this theory, since we first published this article, Teoh has examined other HDR titles on Disney+ and found that some of them do exhibit much brighter peak nits. He called out Captain Marvel and The Force Awakens for hitting 700 nits in his tests. But these two films notwithstanding, Teoh’s HDR concerns aren’t limited to The Mandalorian.

HDTVTest looked at HDR footage from Disney+’s stream of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back to see if it fared any better than The Mandalorian. The result: It too struggled to achieve levels of peak brightness that exceed 200 nits, even during the classic lightsaber duel between Luke and Vader in the bowels of Cloud City. Should George Lucas be thrown under the HDR bus too?

We reached out to Dolby Labs to get its take on this issue. After all, The Mandalorian is presented in Dolby Vision on devices and TVs that are Dolby Vision-compatible, so we figured the company might have something to say about the quality of the stream. Unfortunately, a Dolby Labs spokesperson declined to comment and suggested that we reach out to Disney.

All of this leaves us with a lot of questions and not a lot of answers. We’ll continue to investigate and let you know what we find out.

Updated November 27, 5:45 PM PT: Clarified some of the information provided by Disney+

Editors' Recommendations

Simon Cohen
Contributing Editor, A/V
Simon Cohen covers a variety of consumer technologies, but has a special interest in audio and video products, like spatial…
This JBL waterproof Bluetooth speaker is 43% off right now
JBL Xtreme 2 on a beach.

Bring the party with you wherever you go with a portable Bluetooth speaker like the JBL Xtreme 2, which is currently on sale from Best Buy at 43% off. From its original price of $350, it's down to a more affordable $200 for savings of $150. We're not sure how much time is remaining for you to take advantage of this offer though, so if you're interested, you're going to have to proceed with the transaction as soon as possible. The bargain may be gone by tomorrow, so complete the purchase today if you can.

Why you should buy the JBL Xtreme 2 Bluetooth speaker
JBL is one of the best speaker brands with portable audio as its calling card, so it's not a surprise that there are multiple JBL devices in our roundup of the best Bluetooth speakers. The JBL Xtreme 2 isn't the latest version in its line -- the JBL Xtreme 4 has already been released -- but it's still a fantastic Bluetooth speaker by today's standards with powerful audio using your mobile device as the source. If you prefer a wired connection over Bluetooth, the JBL Xtreme 2 also offers auxiliary audio input.

Read more
Apple’s AirPods Pro earbuds are back at their cheapest-ever price
Apple AirPods Pro 2 inside their charging case, near iPhone 14.

The second-generation Apple AirPods Pro with USB-C are back down to their cheapest-ever price of $189 on Amazon, for savings of $60 on their sticker price of $249. If you don't own the wireless earbuds yet, or if you're thinking about upgrading from an older model, here's another chance at this discount. However, like with most AirPods deals, we don't think it will last long, so if you want to take advantage of the bargain, you're going to have to proceed with the purchase right away.

Why you should buy the Apple AirPods Pro 2 with USB-C
The Apple AirPods Pro 2 with USB-C are featured in our list of the best wireless earbuds as the top choice for Apple fans, partly because of how easy it is to pair them with an iPhone or iPad. Just open their charging case, hold it close to your device, and you're done after a few taps. The Apple AirPods Pro 2 also offer solid audio quality with the capability for wireless lossless audio and Apple's immersive Spatial Audio, so you'll enjoy your favorite music even more.

Read more
Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones are back at their Black Friday price
Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones seen in silver.

Here's a highly recommended offer from Crutchfield if you're on the lookout for headphone deals -- the Sony WH-1000XM5 for $328, which is what they were going for during last year's Black Friday. If you weren't able to buy them for this cheap for any reason, here's another chance at the $70 discount on their original price of $398. We're not sure how long stocks will last though, so if you want to buy these wireless headphones for a more affordable price, you're going to have to add them to your cart and check out as soon as possible.

Why you should buy the Sony WH-1000XM5 wireless headphones
There are multiple reasons why the Sony WH-1000XM5 reign supreme in our roundup of the best headphones, but it all begins with its impressive active noise cancellation that allows them to stand out among other wireless headphones. They're very comfortable to wear, so you'll be able to maximize their long battery life of up to 30 hours on a single charge with ANC activated and up to 40 hours without it, and they'll allow you to call up Amazon's Alexa or Google Assistant through voice commands.

Read more