Update, August 5: Disney+ Hotstar has rolled out 4K and HDR10 support on it's platform. The features are only available on their app for Smart TVs as of now with Dolby Vision & HLG down on the line. Currently, they only have a few Disney+ Originals working with 4K & HDR.
Earlier last month, Hotstar finally rolled out the Disney+ update on their platform, renaming itself to Disney+ Hotstar. This partnership with Disney helped a to bring the massive library of pre-existing Disney shows & movies alongside, the new Disney+ original content to India. Alongside Disney, Hotstar also has a massive content library of original content from HBO, Showtime, ABC Studios etc.
While the massive content library in a single platform is impressive, Hotstar users have been missing on basic features like 4K, HDR for years. It made sense at the time when regional content was the main focus where, we don't get more than 1080P SDR anyway. But, after the Disney+ merger, advanced formats & higher resolutions are super important right now. Disney+ does support 4K & HDR on their native app but, as as Indian customers need to use the Hotstar app instead, they are stuck with 1080P with no HDR.
However, this situation will change as Disney+ Hotstar finally gave a confirmation. In response of my tweets, the official support handle of Hotstar has confirmed that they are currently working on 4K and HDR support on their platform.
It's worth mentioning that, Hotstar already rolled out 5.1 Surround Sound with "The Mandalorian" becoming the first show to support it. However, only Televisions (Apple TV, Android TV & Amazon's Fire TV) can take advantage of this feature. You do not get 5.1 Surround Sound on smartphones as of now.
Also, all of Hotstar's major competitors like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+ & Netflix, already support both 4K & HDR (with advanced HDR formats like HDR 10+ & Dolby Vision). That is one of the biggest drawbacks of Hotstar, especially when people in India are buying huge 4K Televisions, more than ever. Even, a majority of new smartphones are coming with HDR supported displays.
Right now, we don't know how far, Disney+ Hotstar has gone in the process of implementing 4K & HDR on their platform. But, as they are already talking about it, the features may roll out pretty soon. It's not clear if they'll also have more advanced HDR formats like Dolby Vision & HDR 10+ and also, audio formats like Dolby Atmos. But, whenever we get more information on the same, we'll update you right here.
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