Disney+ App

[TRD2300GT]

hi everyone

Does anyone know if Rogers will have an App to view Disney+, the same way is have a Netflix App?

***Edited Labels***

[-G-]

We're another step closer to getting the Disney+ app on Ignite TV!!!  😄 🍿

The "Disney+" voice command now produces an "APPS-04154" error, indicating that the app is failing to load.  The system recognizes Disney+ as a valid app.  However, the app cannot load because it has not been shipped to our set-top boxes... yet.  I also got a suggestion to do a voice search for "WandaVision on Disney+".  😎

This is the best early confirmation that we can get that Rogers is now testing the Disney+ app internally, so it's only a matter of time before they add it to our Apps menu!

[toolcubed]

Great news! My kids will be happy to soon be able to use the voice remote to play Disney+ content 🙂

[Don_Ca]

Kids? I will be happy, must keep up to date with Loki 😉

[Mishka1]

I just signed up for Disney+.
I've only had ignite for about 2 months, and about 2 weeks ago I checked for the Disney+ App to see if it would be worthwhile signing up. At that time there appeared to be an app there alongside the Netflix and Amazon Prime.
I guess they must've been testing it.
It sucks that we can't get it on there, but it's good to know it's coming, at least.

[-G-]

The Disney+ app is now available on Ignite TV!

Yes, this has already been discussed in this thread but I think that this great news deserves some additional visibility.

[-G- · Accepted solution]

It's here!  The Disney+ app is finally available!

[pmacpherson68]

Very cool! I just launched it. Is your voice search working with Disney? So far mine isn’t.

[-G-]

The app seems to work pretty well based on my testing so far.  If you notice any weird issues, try rebooting your set-top box.  For example, "The Mandalorian on Disney+" voice command initially did not work (no content was found) but did work after the reboot.

[pmacpherson68]

I restarted the box and now search is working. Thanks!

[arecad]

It's painfully slow and clunky. When opening a title it takes almost 3 or 4 seconds for the artwork to load. Navigating is not smooth either. It reminds me of using apps that are built into a 10 year smart TV.

Disney app is only one that performs this poorly on my ignite tv.

[Lurker_Returns]

"For example, "The Mandalorian on Disney+"

You don't even have to specify the app. Ignite will search all apps that are signed in.

[toolcubed]

I agree. It is pretty clunky and slow, and is definitely the worst performing app on the Xi6 box. It works very well on Xbox, PlayStation, and Roku by comparison. It’s extremely quick and smooth on my Xbox One. The app running on the Xi6 reminds of when it first launched on PS4. Hopefully it gets better but that will require effort from both Disney and Comcast.

[-G-]

Yes, the Disney+ app is still a work-in-progress.  However, I always found browsing through a tile view, using the Ignite remote's buttons, to be painful; literally and figuratively.  (I miss the List view that Fibe TV offers.)  However, if you search for content using Voice Commands, without specifying "on Disney+", you'll navigate through the set-top box's search results instead, which is faster than clicking through tiles on the app.

[arecad]

Searching with voice is great when you know what you are searching for. I often just want to browse the catalog to see what's available so I need to navigate through the app to do that.

I couldn't take it anymore and switched back to my Fire TV to use Disney+. The performance of the app on the Ignite box is just terrible. I am surprised it passed QA testing given how bad it is. The artwork taking so long to appear should have been a red flag to Comcast/Disney/Rogers that something was off. Maybe it will be fixed in a future update but I am afraid that since it was released in this state, it won't get much better. I thought the hardware on the box was capable but maybe it's the bottleneck? 

[toolcubed]

I don’t think the hardware is the bottleneck. Specs for Comcast Xfinity hardware are not the easiest to find, but based on what I could gather, the Xi6 has a 1.6GHz quad core Broadcom CPU and 1GB of RAM. That should be more than enough for streaming apps to perform well. I think those specs might actually be better than the Roku Streaming Stick Plus, and Disney+ works very well on the Roku. I think the performance of Disney+ on Ignite/Xfinity can be fixed via software (i.e. in the form of an updated app). It’s just a matter of whether or not Comcast and Disney are willing to spend the time and money to improve it.

[arecad]

Agree that it's likely not a hardware issue as all the other apps on the box run equivalent to their Android equivalent versions on my Shield TV. I am just surprised this passed QA testing. It's clearly a beta level release but to the public. Should have ironed out the performance issues before releasing it. 

[-G-]

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@arecad wrote:

Agree that it's likely not a hardware issue as all the other apps on the box run equivalent to their Android equivalent versions on my Shield TV. I am just surprised this passed QA testing. It's clearly a beta level release but to the public. Should have ironed out the performance issues before releasing it. 

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Disney and Comcast promised to launch a Disney+ app in 1Q2021, and it got released to Comcast customers on March 29, 2021.  They didn't release late but what they did initially release was half-baked.  The app has gotten better since then, and I am sure that it will keep getting better, but clearly the developers had a deadline and were under intense pressure to release the app in whatever state it was in.