If you want to watch movies and shows with others remotely, a great way to do that is by streaming Disney+ on a Discord server. Discord has great functionality for screen sharing and streaming, so here’s how to make the most of it, and how to troubleshoot if problems arise.
Can You Stream Disney+ on Discord?
Streaming Disney+ on Discord only requires having a Disney+ plan and a Discord server to stream from. You can do this in any Discord server you’re part of, and if you aren’t in any, you can make your own and invite your friends.
While you don’t need to pay for a Nitro subscription to stream Disney+, stream quality will be limited to 30 FPS and 720p. This can be a bit choppy at times, but it gets the job done.
You also need a computer to stream it from since you can only screen share Disney+ on Discord if you’re using Disney+ on a browser. So you won’t be able to do this from your phone or tablet, unfortunately.
How to Screen Share Disney+ on Discord
First, make sure you open your browser and have hardware acceleration turned off in your browser’s settings. We’ll show you how to do this on each browser later in the article.
Next, you can open Disney+, login, and get your desired show or movie ready to stream.
Now, you can launch Discord on your computer and get ready to start streaming. Before you do anything, you’ll have to add your browser to your Registered Games list. To do this, click the gear icon in the bottom left, navigate to the Registered Games menu in the sidebar, and type in the browser to add it to the list.
Next, go to your desired Discord server and join a voice channel. Here, you’ll be able to screen share by pressing the monitor icon, which will read “Share your screen” if you hover over it. You’ll get a pop-up window asking you to select which window you want to share, and what quality you want to stream in. The highest quality you can stream for free is 30FPS and 720p, but with a $10 Nitro subscription, you can stream at up to 60FPS and 1080p. Once you’ve chosen your streaming quality, select “Go live” to start streaming.
The streaming window will appear on your screen among the other screens joining the stream, so you’ll be able to see what everyone else is seeing while you stream it. When you want to stop screen sharing, you can press the three dots in the corner of the stream and select “Stop streaming” or press the monitor icon that you pressed to start streaming, which will now have an X icon in it.
How to Fix the Black or Frozen Screen Issue While Streaming Disney+ on Discord
Because you’re not technically allowed to stream Disney+ media to other people on your computer, you might face an issue where the stream shows up as black or a still image from the movie or show, with the audio still playing. This is because of Digital Rights Management (DRM) software built into the streaming service, which is pretty common across the board.
The way to get around this issue is by turning off hardware acceleration in your browser and in Discord. Hardware acceleration is on by default on browsers and on Discord, because it helps to offload some of the work your computer is doing from your CPU to your GPU, which is more efficient. According to a Stack Overflow user, hardware acceleration keeps the streamed content with its DRM software intact and encrypted all the way to your display, while turning it off requires it to be decrypted by your CPU. If you’ve ever had an issue taking a screenshot of a movie or show on a streaming service before, this workaround also applies.
So here’s how to turn off hardware acceleration in Discord and various web browsers to solve the black or still screen issue.
How to Disable Hardware Acceleration in Discord
In Discord, you’ll see your profile picture and some icons in the bottom left corner. Press the gear icon, which opens User Settings. From there, select Advanced in the menu, and you’ll see Hardware Acceleration. Toggle it off, and Discord will restart to apply the setting.
There’s also a Hardware Acceleration toggle specifically for Video streaming in the Voice & Video section of User Settings, which you can turn off as well. You have to scroll down a bit until you find the Advanced section under Voice & Video. This toggle and the first are separate from each other, and toggling them both off ensures you don’t have any issues with streaming Disney+.
How to Turn Off Hardware Acceleration in Mozilla Firefox
With the browser open, select the menu furthest to the top right with three lines, and select Settings. From Settings, select General and navigate down to the Performance section. There, you’ll see a toggle for “Use recommended performance settings.” Once you turn that off, you can then toggle off “Use hardware acceleration when available.”
You can also use the search feature in Settings to find it quickly. Just type in “Hardware acceleration,” and it will navigate to that toggle for you.
Then, quit and reopen Firefox. Now hardware acceleration will be off, and you can stream Disney+ without issue.
How to Turn Off Graphics Acceleration in Google Chrome
Open Chrome and press the three-dot menu in the top right corner, and from there, select Settings. In the menu on the left, select System, and on the right side, you’ll see “Use graphics acceleration when available.” Toggle this off, click Relaunch, and you’re good to go.
How to Turn Off Hardware Acceleration in Microsoft Edge
Once Edge is open, click the menu in the top right corner and press Settings. In the menu on the left, you’ll see System and Performance. Open that, and on the right side is the “Use hardware acceleration when available” toggle. Toggle it off, then restart the browser.
How to Run Discord as an Administrator
If you’re still having issues after turning off hardware acceleration in Discord and your browser, you can run Discord as an administrator to get around it.
If you’re running Windows, you can do this by opening the Start menu, locating Discord, and on the section on the right of the app, click “Run as administrator,” and then click “Yes” when prompted.
If you’re on a Mac, you can run Discord as an administrator by using the terminal on your computer. Open the Terminal, and type in this command:
sudo /Applications/Discord.app/Contents/MacOS/Discord Hit enter; then, you’ll be prompted to type in your admin password.
After you’ve done this, try streaming Disney+ as outlined above. At this point, it should work perfectly well.
Streaming Disney+ on Discord can take a little bit of prior effort, but it’s well worth it if you want to share a movie with your friends. These instructions also apply to any other streaming service, so you and your friends can make the most of your streaming subscriptions together.
