Disney and Apple break new ground with Disney+ on Apple Vision Pro including virtual environments and 3D content

Jan 16, 2024 in "The Walt Disney Company"

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Disney and Apple Vision Pro

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Posted: Tuesday January 16, 2024 9:21am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Disney+ will launch February 2, 2024 on Apple Vision Pro, Apple's new spatial computer, offering Disney+ subscribers with a Vision Pro device a new way to stream entertainment at no additional cost.

"At Disney, we're constantly searching for new ways to entertain, inform, and inspire by combining exceptional creativity with groundbreaking technology to create truly remarkable experiences," said Bob Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Company. "Apple Vision Pro is a revolutionary platform that will bring our fans closer to the characters and stories they love while immersing them more deeply in all that Disney has to offer. We're proud to once again be partnering with Apple to bring extraordinary new Disney experiences to people around the world."

Disney and Apple Vision Pro

At launch, viewers can transform their space into one of four Disney+ environments, bringing them even closer to the story. Each environment includes animations and sounds that make the space feel alive, including Easter eggs from films and franchises.

Available only on Apple Vision Pro, Disney+ subscribers will be able to stream the entire catalog – including thousands of TV shows and films, plus access to Hulu content for eligible Disney Bundle subscribers – including: the Disney+ Theater, inspired by the historic El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood; the Scare Floor from Pixar's Monsters Inc.; Marvel's Avengers Tower overlooking downtown Manhattan; and the cockpit of Luke Skywalker's landspeeder, facing a binary sunset on the planet Tatooine from the Star Wars galaxy.

Viewers will be able to watch dozens of popular movies in 3D, like Avatar: The Way of Water, Avengers: Endgame, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Elemental, and Encanto. More titles, including those available exclusively to Disney+ subscribers, will be announced at a later date. Apple Vision Pro users can also rent or purchase most 3D movies through the Store tab in the Apple TV app. Users who previously purchased Disney movies that include 3D versions from the Apple TV app will be able to access those 3D versions on Apple Vision Pro at no additional cost.

Disney+ on Apple Vision Pro is the result of collaboration between multiple technology teams at the Company, including Disney Studio Technology, Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology, ILM Immersive, and Skywalker Sound.

Disney and Apple Vision Pro

Disney+ environments were developed using the Universal Scene Description (USD) format. Originally developed by Pixar and open sourced in 2016, USD allows developers to work simultaneously and collaboratively across creation tools and development pipelines to compose complex 3D experiences, at scale, across many applications, and in real time. The Alliance for OpenUSD – a group formed by Pixar and Apple, among others – is working to standardize the USD format across the industry.

Using Dolby Vision and Multiview High Efficiency Video Coding(MV-HEVC), 3D movies on Disney+ will deliver UHD resolution in HDR, unfiltered and independent for each eye, and at a high frame rate for several titles.

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PK225 days ago

Vision Pro is a pretty good software OS/platform already, released on dramatically compromised hardware. And it's one of those fun things where it kinda needs, like, multiple major technology breakthroughs (smaller/improved battery tech and good transparent displays at least) - as well as being at least reduced to half the price! - before it can even start to be a product for more than a fraction of a percentage of the population. It's an incredibly long game and Apple can afford to play it, but whether they will or not remains to be seen.

UNCgolf25 days ago

Whether they wanted to give up or not is irrelevant -- the market wasn't there so it didn't make sense to continue. People just weren't interested in 3D TVs.

Rich Brownn26 days ago

No one wanted to give up. Fortunately I can still get current 3D videos from overseas

FN2BFRE27 days ago

I'm still waiting to buy my Vision Pro until we get that mini MSEP from the reveal event.

UNCgolf27 days ago

This is true, but if they saw a big enough market they'd have worked these issues out (i.e. agreed on a uniform standard). I think the fact that they didn't think it was worth doing tells you all you need to know.

Rich Brownn27 days ago

The other reason 3D never took off was competing systems. While passive glasses could be interchanged with other passive systems, active glasses could not be moved between manufacturers. Having multiple standards just confused everyone.

UNCgolf27 days ago

I think I misunderstood your original post -- I thought you were arguing that the Vision Pro was actually incredibly successful and stopping production was meaningless. I agree with basically all of this. I'm pretty sure I even compared VR headsets to iPads somewhere earlier in this thread, as a device that will be relatively successful but unlikely to ever become an everyday use device for the general public. That doesn't mean they shouldn't produce them, though. iPads have definitely been more successful than the Vision Pro, but the Vision Pro also cost 3x as much, so that's not exactly a one to one comparison.

lazyboy97o27 days ago

It’s not really all that different. A variety of discontinued iPads are still available new and unopened because demand was lower than expected. That’s the only way that happens. Just in general the iPad is a story of a niche device that hasn’t really changed anything the way Apple has pushed/hoped. Yes, more have been sold than the VisionPro but very very few expected the expensive VisionPro to do gangbusters business out of the gate. There’s an episode in the first season of Modern Family about Phil wanting an iPad. It’s dweeby Phil who wants the just introduced device that was mocked for sounding like a feminine hygiene product because it wasn’t seen as something with mass appeal like the iPod (which itself went through several versions before becoming a widely known product), it was a weird nerd thing. The iPad 2 ended up really hitting but the line as a whole has never really done what Apple wanted. Sales have been (yes, higher than the VisionPro) but a bit stagnant and flagging for years now. They keep introducing new features, versions and gimmicks to try and kick things up but it’s not really working. People buy them but they’re used as media consumption devices that they use occasionally and hold onto for years. For most people the answer to which one to buy is the cheapest one. The iPad mini was just refreshed with what is being described as a leftover parts model, using processors that apparently didn’t make the cut for use in iPhones, because the demand isn’t really there but they’ve also apparently found a niche with pilots. Beyond the iPad there really isn’t much of a tablet market. The AppleWatch 10 is shipping with watchOS 11 because Apple had to completely revamp the software in order to finally figure out a device that has some appeal. A product doesn’t need to iPhone numbers in order to be a worthwhile endeavor. It can be something that people buy once, use from time to time and hold onto years. The VisionPro wasn’t a make or break product that Apple bet the whole farm on. They still rake in billions while sitting on a massive pile of billions. They can at times be stupidly stubborn (see the last years of the x86 laptops) but also a willingness to play a long game and try different approaches.

Sirwalterraleigh28 days ago

Ummmm…nobody’s buying the damn thing So we have to run interference for Bob Iger through failures…does that now extend to Tim Cook because they play shuffleboard together?

britain28 days ago

I’m sure Apple is disappointed with the numbers, but they knew this was not going to be “the next iPhone” …not yet. Just like Meta and their Orion glasses, Apple knows that really slim and powerful VR/AR glasses aren’t going to be good enough and light enough to take the world by storm until the 2030’s. However, Apple chose to make some money off of the best thing currently possible, let its visionOS get established, and get its Vision App Store rolling. Why do your R&D in private when you can be making some money off of the prototypes (as long as they actually work of course)?

Fido Chuckwagon28 days ago

This is never going to be more than a niche product. There are certainly some innovations once mocked that became ubiquitous (smart phones, tablets, video calls, etc). However, the writing is on the wall for a device that requires a person to wear a headset over their eyes. It’s just not a comfortable experience that’s ever going to be widely adopted for the same reason that 3d television and 3d movies never took off despite repeated attempts to make them take off. It also can’t be ignored that there is significant evidence that extended use is really bad for people whose eyes are still developing (basically everyone under the age of 18).

UNCgolf28 days ago

Sure, but that's not the case in this specific instance. We know that demand is far lower than Apple expected. It feels like spin to hand wave it away as standard manufacturing process. This product line has not been successful (at least compared to Apple's expectations).

lazyboy97o28 days ago

But even successful product lines have been in that position. You can still get a new 9th generation iPad, with a nice discount, six months after Apple stopped selling it directly. They are not being manufactured, have not been in at least several months, but there is still inventory out there and available.