Quest Gets Disney+ App With Downloads for Offline Viewing, But No 3D Movies Like Vision Pro

By
Scott Hayden
-
8

The Disney+ video streaming service is finally available on Quest. While better late than never, it’s actually missing out on a few key features for now.


The News

The Horizon Store finally has it own dedicated Disney+ app, which supports Quest 2, Quest 3 and Quest 3S. The app lets you stream the full catalogue of 2D videos on Quest and also download and replay them when offline.

While most content is served up in 1080p, the app also includes select titles in Dolby Vision 4K HDR on Quest 3/S (streaming only), as well as a limited selection of content from Hulu and ESPN.

There a few caveats though. For now, the app is US-only; Disney says it will rollout international availability in early 2026. What’s more, it’s lacking the ability to stream 3D film, like the Apple Vision Pro app does, which came to the headset in 2024 as a launch day feature.

Disney notes that “all content is only available to stream in 2D on Quest devices at this time,” which does seem to leave some room for hope in the future though.

Notably, on Vision Pro, Disney+ subscribers can stream a variety of recent films, including Avatar: The Way of Water, Avengers Endgame, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Frozen II, Star Wars Episode VII, and Encanto.

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My Take

There doesn’t seem to be any real downside to Disney eventually allowing its 3D films on Quest, which could mean it likely comes down to a few scenarios: Apple may have timed exclusive rights to 3D movies from Disney, or maybe the films have been specifically mastered in a Vision Pro-specific format that can’t be streamed directly to Quest. There’s no saying for now.

Either way, Disney has definitely hit the nail on timing by bringing its (mostly) full app to Quest; new Quest users will likely be looking for all of the same apps they might find on a smart TV, which Quest sadly doesn’t really have yet though, giving Disney some more visibility over competing platforms.

For now, Quest users looking to stream from Netflix, Hulu, Max, Paramount+, or Apple TV need to sign in and stream in Quest’s built-in Internet browser. Native XR video streaming apps include Amazon Prime Video, Peacock, PlutoTV, Starz, and YouTube.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Hussain X

    I'm sure 3D will launch as soon as Avatar 3 3D comes to streaming. I look forward to watching Tron Ares 3D again, but in VR cinema this time. Was amazing in 3D at a physical cinema.

  • namekuseijin

    without 3D and environments I don't even care it's not available here…

  • What a total fail! Why is it so difficult to just watch proper 3D movies on the Quest 3? Honestly, if it weren’t for dodgy download sites, I’d still be waiting to watch The Super Mario Bros. Movie in stereoscopic 3D on my Quest 3. And I’m still trying to find a version with the highest possible resolution and quality—including audio.

    What’s the problem here? VR was made for this kind of experience! The fact that 3D movies aren’t even a default option in the official Meta Quest TV app is just bonkers. It should be front and center, a main tab right on the home page.

    What's even more frustrating is that when the Quest 3 does eventually get these things, half the time I can't even use them in the UK, which is just utterly ridiculous. I still can't even use voice commands to this day, 3D movies aren't really available in Bigscreen in the UK, etc.—it's absurd!

    • Christian Schildwaechter

      Unforeseen consequences. Meta made a special deal with Vudu/Fandango at Home in late 2020, making them their preferred movie content partner with reduced fees.

      This not only massively screwed over Bigscreen, which were still expected to pay 30% on each movie rental, more or less ruining their business on Quest, and very likely inspiring them to release their own Beyond HMD. It also cut them off from 3D movies, as while Vudu/Fandango at Home at one time offered 3D movies for purchase or rental, this has been disabled due to licensing issues. The 3D option is still listed, but you can now only view 3D movies you already bought in the past, but not get new ones.

    • STL

      II simply plug in a USB-C stick and enjoy 3D movies. With DVDFab, this works with all 3D movies available on Blu-ray. The resolution can’t be too high; otherwise, the bandwidth to get the movie from the stick into the Quest 3 will make the video unstable.

  • Christian Schildwaechter

    I'd say the lack of 3D content on Quest is more likely due to Apple's longtime close relation to Disney, going back to Steve Jobs who was always a fan, and also the CEO/(main) owner of Pixar, partnered with Disney since 1991. By 2006 Jobs was also the largest Disney stockholder after the company acquired Pixar for USD 7.4B in an all-stock deal.

    The relationship between Apple and Disney has stayed good, and they were a content launch partner on the Vision Pro, which may have come with either exclusivity or preferred treatment deals. Disney published a press release about that in 2024-02 (also pointing out their special Star Wars/Avengers/Disney movie theater viewing environments), which also makes clear that the problem is not that their 3D movies are encoded in a special way only playable on AVP:

    Now, with Apple Vision Pro, we’re able to bring the experience with our stories into a whole new dimension of immersion. […] Viewers will be able to watch 42 Disney films in stunning 3D […]

    The 3D films will use Dolby Vision, Multiview High Efficiency Video Coding (MV-HEVC), UHD resolution in HDR, and at a high frame rate for several titles. This will ensure that the creator’s vision is intact and fully preserved for the best possible viewing experience.

    thewaltdisneycompany_com/disney-apple-vision-pro/

    MV-HEVC is the multiview extension of HVEC/H.265, using the same MP4/Quicktime container format as pretty much every H.265 video, only organizing the streams slightly different with an additional, differential stream for the second eye. Everything with H.265 hardware decoders can play MV-HEVC, you just need an app properly splitting the file into streams and redirecting them to the decoder. And Meta announced native MV-HEVC support for spatial video on Quest in 2024-02, so Quest 3 would have been able to play any 3D Disney movie available on Apple TV for almost two years by now.

  • Paul Bellino

    Yet Again Meta is proving to be a Disappointment. Oh well Come to Steam on there you can do anything you want. Remember these Two words in 2026 STEAM FRAME….We will have what you want at good prices.

  • sfmike

    For some reason the tech industry has always had a problem with 3D.