Community

sb64 · ‎10-05-2023

Hi will Disney+ app still work on the now tv stick after may?

Spoiler

gavs82008 · ‎10-05-2023

@sb64

Yes, it is just the Smart Box that is not being supported soon.

https://whatsondisneyplus.com/disney-to-be-removed-from-now-smart-devices/

https://www.cordbusters.co.uk/disney-plus-pulls-plug-on-now-tv-boxes/

FYI that I do not work for NOW, just a NOW customer trying to help

schnapps · ‎10-05-2023

Hi @sb64

The NOW Stick will be fine using Disney + App (see linked article below).

https://www.cordbusters.co.uk/disney-plus-pulls-plug-on-now-tv-boxes/

From what I can tell it's the Roku 4 and NOW Smart Freeview boxes that are affected.

Not sure about the NOW black boxes or the NOW 4K Smart box because they are not based on the Roku 4.

I haven't checked my old NOW black box or NOW Smart 4K box yet to see if they are showing the Disney + warning message.

sb64 · ‎11-05-2023

Thanks for that i didn't know thought my now stick would be affected as well after seeing the message on my now freeview smart box that's all.

schnapps · ‎10-05-2023

Just tried my old NOW black box and getting no Disney + warning message.

Where my NOW Freeview Smart box is showing the Disney + message that their App will not be supported on this device (NOW Freeview Smart box model 4500SK after the 30th of May).

commanda6 · ‎10-05-2023

Hi @sb64 @schnapps @gavs82008

the now smart stick is unaffected so Disney plus should still be supported

in my personal opinion, I find it highly unlikely that support the now smart box 4K will be ditched any time soon. The reason being is that the smart box 4K is from around the same sort of time as the Roku streaming stick plus support for that isn't going to be ditched at the moment. Although you could say, my opinion is based on logical information that is available 😁

to give you a bit of extra context I link a Wikipedia article below listing all the different Roku devices from different generations. The now smart box 4K was based on the Roku Premier+ and carried the model number for 4631 . The closest Roku equivalent model number is 4630, which is the Roku Premier+.

From reading the article that @schnapps has linked above, it seems that the author has wrongly referred to the smart box 4K and smart box They seem to view them as different generations of the same device when they are not. They are actually quite different.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roku

if you look at Roku's own technical pages, you'll see the Roku Premier+ is still very much in support in terms of software updates. It's currently what Roku defines as a an 'updatable Roku model'. Things will probably remain like that for the next couple of years, as I believe the Premier+ should support HDR. If I remember correctly the roku 4 does not is also question marks over its support of the h265 (HEVC) and vp9 video codecs. Support for these video codecs would be a bare minimum for screening high-resolution HDR content these days.

https://developer.roku.com/en-gb/docs/specs/hardware.md

I do not work for Now . I am simply a Now customer trying to help I am a Community Contributor This means that I know a lot about the service. But just like you I am still a customer. This means I cannot help you with issues that would involve looking into your account directly. A member of the now TV forum team or live chat will need to assist you with these issues.

schnapps · ‎10-05-2023

Hi @commanda6

Strange the Roku 2 and 3 are still updateable Roku models, where the Roku 4 is now classed has a legacy model.

Would this be the CPU used or graphics chip or something else?

Anyway it looks like my NOW black box and NOW 4K Smart box are fine with the Disney + App.

Though I don't use the two above devices much anymore (located in spare bedrooms) and my two go to devices for using NOW is the Amazon 4K Fire Stick and Roku Stick Plus.

commanda6 · ‎10-05-2023

Hi @schnapps

I think the difference is the Roku two and Roku three are not intended for the high-resolution content and are limited to 1080. For this reason H264 support is perfectly fine, so services are happy to continue supporting as people aren't screaming high-resolution content using them

I do not work for Now . I am simply a Now customer trying to help I am a Community Contributor This means that I know a lot about the service. But just like you I am still a customer. This means I cannot help you with issues that would involve looking into your account directly. A member of the now TV forum team or live chat will need to assist you with these issues.

schnapps · ‎10-05-2023

Hi @commanda6

The NOW Freeview Smart box is also limited / capped at 1080p or doesn't H264 work like that ?

Or is it because the NOW Freeview Smart box has the inbuilt architecture to run 4K but NOW capped this device to 1080p ?

Anyway not to worry, where it looks like the NOW Freeview Smart box model number 4500 seems the only one of the NOW boxes models that will not support the Disney + App after the 30th of May 2023 (would be useful if NOW would confirm this perhaps on their Apps related Help Article under Help Centre).

Also just been on the Disney + UK website and currently they are still listing all NOW branded models and haven't added a side note that the NOW Freeview Smart box will not be supported after the 30th of May (I am guessing they are assuming NOW Freeview Smart box owners will pick up the unsupported message when they click on the Disney + App).

Where the Roku 4 seems to be already removed from the official Disney + support list on the Disney + website.

schnapps · ‎11-05-2023

I can see from today that NOW have just added a note on their list of Apps help article that Disney + will not be available on the NOW Freeview Smart box.