How to stream Disney Plus
The highly anticipated Disney Plus streaming service, which will likely prove as essential as Netflix to many consumers, is now available. Disney Plus combines content from Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic into a single streaming app. You can dig into Disney Plus’ vault of animated classics, superhero blockbusters, TV shows, and new originals, like The Mandalorian.
Here’s everything you should know about getting started with Disney Plus.
How much does Disney Plus cost?
Disney Plus is $6.99 per month or $69.99 if you pay annually. There’s also a bundle that combines Disney Plus, Hulu (with ads), and ESPN Plus for a single rate of $12.99 per month. You can access Disney Plus on mobile devices, TVs, streaming gadgets, game consoles, and the web.
Where is Disney Plus available?
Disney Plus started off in the United States and Canada. The full service is also available in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, and France.
Content selection will differ based on your country, as it does with Netflix and other streaming services.
What devices can I watch Disney Plus on at launch?
Disney has managed to land deals with all the key streaming platforms. Below are the various platforms that offer Disney Plus with download links where available.
How many user profiles can I create on my Disney Plus account?
Each Disney Plus account supports up to seven individual profiles with personalized recommendations and separate watchlists.
What is there to watch?
Disney Plus is constantly changing and adding to its library, but here are some of the various things you can watch right now:
Are there parental controls?
…sort of. When you create a profile and designate it as a kid’s account, it’ll be limited to a special portal of Disney Plus that includes age-appropriate content for children.
However, there’s nothing stopping kids from switching profiles into the regular Disney Plus experience. Disney doesn’t offer any PIN protection or ways of keeping them locked into the kid-optimized experience.
How many devices can I stream Disney Plus on at once?
Disney Plus allows four concurrent streams across devices.
This is more than what Hulu (one stream at a time) and ESPN Plus (three streams) offer, so if you’re signing up for the triple bundle, just be mindful of that. You should have enough slots so that everyone in your household can watch what they want with Disney Plus, but that won’t necessarily be true of the other services.
How do downloads work?
You can download movies and TV shows from Disney Plus on up to 10 mobile devices. Downloads are supported on iPhone, iPad, Android phones, and Android tablets (including Amazon Fire tablets). They are not available on laptops.
Disney claims it will allow unlimited downloads constrained only by the available storage on your device. Subscribers must connect to the internet at least once every 30 days for downloads to remain available, but Disney Plus automatically renews download licenses when you do — so don’t worry about anything expiring on you when you’re about to get on a plane or hand your kid an iPad before a road trip.
In the Disney Plus settings menu, you can pick between high, medium, and standard quality for downloads, and the app helpfully shows you how much stuff you can save for each one. High takes up significantly more storage than the other choices, but if you’ve got the space and want the top Disney Plus experience away from an internet connection, that’s probably the one you want.
High quality means Disney Plus will download the best version of a given show or movie that your device is capable of playing. Video resolution is optimized for whatever screen you’re using, and if your phone or tablet supports expanded HDR color (and an increasing number of them do), you’ll get HDR-enabled downloads.
One nice touch is that Disney Plus always shows the various video and audio formats that a piece of content is available in, so even if your device can’t play something in 4K, you’ll at least know the option is there on TV screens. Notice in The Little Mermaid example on an iPad Pro below, the downloaded video will be HD with Dolby Vision HDR and 5.1 audio, but down below you can see that it’s available elsewhere in 4K with Dolby Atmos audio.
Do I have to pay extra for 4K?
No, 4K streaming is available as part of the standard Disney Plus plan.
Can I share my Disney Plus password with friends and family without getting in trouble?
Probably, as long as you keep it within reason. Disney acknowledges that password sharing is a thing and doesn’t seem too concerned with strictly monitoring who’s using your Disney Plus account and where. But if things get out of hand or if password sharing affects the service’s growth substantially, Disney might get less flexible.
The highly anticipated Disney Plus streaming service, which will likely prove as essential as Netflix to many consumers, is now available. Disney Plus combines content from Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic into a single streaming app. You can dig into Disney Plus’ vault of animated classics, superhero blockbusters,…
