If you’ve got a 4K TV and are streaming Disney+ content with a data cap on your internet, you’re chewing through your monthly allowance.
Below are Netflix‘s data numbers. Rest assured, Disney+ will be similar.
- 3gb per hour of HD content.
- 7gb per hour of 4K content.
What this means is that the 50 hours of Disney+ streaming you did last month cost more than double the data of your usual Netflix binge.
A problem with Disney+
Despite some consumer feedback, the first thing to know is that this isn’t a technical issue with the Disney+ service. It’s actually a feature that Disney+ has so much 4K content, far more than competitors like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
Over time, this problem is going to be something all services must make consumers aware of. However, it’s more the responsibility of the end-user to monitor their data and data usage. It’s only because Disney+ is the first to bring this to light that they’re getting associated with a data cap problem.
How to stop it?
There are easy solutions to fix this problem:
- Via your TV’s settings, select 1080p or HD video. This should be available via a screen resolution or video output option on the menu.
- Connect your streaming device directly or via HDMI cable to a non-4K port. Every TV has at least one standard HDMI port.
- If you find that you can’t, then get a standard HDMI cable. Specifically, pick out a cable that is not HDMI 2.0 or 4K-compliant. This cable will force your TV to show content in HD, not 4K.
If you are unable to stop streaming in 4K, the only other options are to increase your data cap or reduce your streaming of Disney+ content — and we all know the latter isn’t possible.