I may be the only person in the world who has experienced this, but, I’ll write about it anyway, just so I can remember it. 😉

I’ll get to the Disney+ issue in a minute, but, first some background….

Netgear Cable Modem

Being me……I purchased and installed (both very easy) my own cable modem….a Netgear (circled in green-ish).

One of the quirks of this modem is that I need to re-boot it (and thus re-synchronize it to Xfinity) occasionally.

I usually notice that the reboot is needed when my Pixel 6 Pro app….Speedtest….results fall to like 80 Mbps (from a normal near 400 Mbps).

Since I am anal about stuff like this, I normally test my Internet speed pretty regularly.

This Christmas was different: With Kristen coming home and a ton of upcoming “projects” in the queue…..I found out (read on!) that I did not test my Internet speed from December 17, 2022 to January 7, 2023 !!!

Watching Disney+ and Netflix during Christmas with Kristen and Lori

Binge-ing “Wednesday” on Netflix….everything was cool. Great video and audio and one pretty damn terrifc show.

Binge-ing “The Big Shot” (another terrific show!) on Disney+ was great for Lori and Kristen, but, I was going NUTS!

The color was all over the place. The camera would change direction and the color would change. WTF?? To me, it was distracting as hell, but, interestingly, Lori had no idea what I was complaining about. So funny.

I checked my Sony A8G settings and all was good.

What the heck is going on???

I decided to check my Disney+ app settings…..

In the main menu, scroll down to the gear circled in red to get into the settings page.

Then…..

Scroll down to App Settings and you will see….

“Data Usage” selections:

–> Automatic (the key to a problem is always when it says “automatic”) which gives you the best picture but uses the most bandwidth (highest speed).

–> Moderate which works best for those with less Internet speed, and

–> Save Data for those with even less Internet speed.

The default, I believe, is “Automatic”.

I came up with a Theory: It’s possible that, when my Internet speed goes down, the “automatic” mode might, possibly, be doing weird stuff, one being that shifting color thing that was driving me nuts!

Lets look at Speedtest results to see my Internet speed…

…..where I saw that my download speed was 89.3 Mbps on January 7, 2023…..I knew I had forgotten to reboot my cable modem…since December 17th!

And that my new theory was ripe for testing!

I rebooted my cable modem and saw that I needed to do it again at which time I also rebooted my Orbi WiFi router…I finally got the expected 400+ Mbps connection.

Let the test begin!

Testing My Theory and Conclusion

With my Internet speed back to normal, as my first test…….I re-watched the last episode of “The Big Shot” and……eureka!……it was PERFECT!

I then watched the latest episode of “Andor” and again….the picture quality was PERFECT!

No more color shifting issue!

It was simply a matter of Internet speed!!!!

Problem solved…..

NOTE: If you have lower Internet speeds, you may get a better Disney+ experience by choosing “Moderate” in the Disney+ app settings, as “automatic” may be lacking.

Oh, yeah, how did I figure this out? Wellllll, over my years as an engineer, I’ve had my share of “automatic” issues. This discovery came about because of those years of experience.

Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEM / STEAM) rock!

Advice: As you progress in STEM / STEAM…..add the word “automatic” to your list of features to investigate if there is a problem. 🙂

Geek on!

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More STEM or GEEK stuff……

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