Disney+ Hotstar made its debut in our market earlier this week with much fanfare although Malaysian fans still have to wait until 1 June 2021 to actually able to utilize the service. While the official website of Disney+ Hotstar Malaysia is already live, it currently contains only one page which provides general information regarding the service and has not yet allow users to see the service’s actual interface.
With Malaysians being a very curious bunch, it is natural that many including us have a lot of burning questions regarding the service. Among them is the resolution of the contents that will be made available through the service as well as devices that it supports.
We have reached out to the folks at Disney+ Hotstar Malaysia and we were told that most of the contents provided by the service will be shown in Full HD. For those who looking for 4K contents, there will be several movies provided in such resolution.
These 4K movies will also include Dolby Vision and Dolby Audio enhancements but unfortunately, they can only be viewed through the Disney+ Hotstar app on Apple TV and Android TV devices.
Speaking about devices, Disney+ Hotstar Malaysia can also be enjoyed through the second-generation Chromecast with firmware 1.43 or newer. For those who are using Android TV device, they need to make sure that it has OS version 7.0 and above while the service is only available for fourth-generation Apple TV and newer with at least tvOS 11.
If you are hoping to catch Disney+ Hotstar Malaysia via game consoles or smart TVs with in-house operating systems such as Samsung Tizen and LG webOS, you are out of luck for now. This is rather unfortunate as these devices are supported by the stand-alone Disney+ service in markets as the US and Singapore.
As per what Disney+ Hotstar Malaysia has announced at launch, the service can also be enjoyed through Android and iOS devices as well as web browsers. The service has also noted to us that it will continuously expand the list of supported devices.
We also asked if Disney+ Hotstar Malaysia plans to launch a physical gift card similar to Disney+ in the US and UK but we received no response on that. Instead, the service provides us with a list of payment methods that will be supported by Disney+ Hotstar Malaysia when it officially opens for business this June.
As expected, Mastercard & Visa credit and debit cards together with American Express credit cards are accepted for payments on Disney+ Hotstar Malaysia. Consumers can also utilize online banking via PayNet’s FPX method with most local banks and selected foreign banks.
Not to forget, iOS users will also be able to subscribe to Disney+ Hotstar Malaysia via in-app purchase. Meanwhile, stay tuned for more information on the new streaming service as we get closer to its official rollout on 1 June.
