Will 24 be in HD? Yes.

It was this last season, I can't imagine it won't be this season.

--Andrew

first time watcher?? HD and 5.1, definitely the type of show you want in HD.

A search for "24" would have been helpful. 5 or so threads down is the master "24 on Fox in HD" thread...

Me too....so this will be my first time watching this show in HD as well.

I saw Prison Break on FOX in HD this year and it looked great in HD.

While '24' has been broadcast in HD for a couple of years now, prior to that they had a couple of years of FOX's upconverted widescreen 480p telecasts that didn't look half-bad. On close-ups, it could fool you.

Not to split hairs, but weren't they 480i widescreen upconverted by local affiliates to 720p? (or upconverted by Fox to 720p and sent to affiliates this way...?)

I think the majority of the OC's first season was this way, as I remember it they called it, "high resolution digital TV" or something...

It didn't look bad, but the switch to HD was noticable.

I think they were upconverted and passed directly thru at 480p, so you still needed an HDTV to see it that way (like progressive-scan DVD's). Not sure if that happened at the network head-end or at the local affiliate level. FOX didn't have HD facilities yet at the time which would have been required for 720p. At any rate, they used a high-end commercial upconverter and the end product looked pretty darn good. Not HD good, of course, but pretty close.

It was transmitted to the stations in digital 480i anamorphic and the stations converted it to 480p 16:9. Some stations did upconvert it to 1080i if they had the gear in place but it was still a 480 product just upconverted.

And oh, yes. 24 will be in HD.

As far as I can tell, of all the scripted programs on network television (i.e. dramas and comedies) only 7th Heaven on CW and Scrubs on NBC are still SD only. Of course, NBC fooled us by airing last years season finale of Scurbs in HD, but then reverted to SD this season.

The answer is yes, of course, and the topic title has been edited.

Not to split other hairs, but last year it might as well have been 480p with how bad it was. We watched it for the show, not the picture quality. I mean, I assume that for most of the fans here.

True, last season the HD PQ was horrible. Unless there are some dramatic improvements in the production of the show, and from foxeng's post that doesn't appear to be the case, expect more of the same.

The 5.1 audio on 24 is spectacular though.

i thought the "poor PQ" was an artistic decision. they wanted the graininess. think of 24 as the anti-CSI: miami. i'm perfectly fine with the gritty look and not the cartoony look.

It was also really soft which may also have been an artistic decision.

I think you misunderstood my reply. Before FOX started doing HD, the widescreen programs were transmitted to the stations on a 480i anamorphic link and the stations converted it to 480p or some upconverted it to 1080i.

FOX doesn't transmit to the stations in that format anymore but with a true 720p 16:9 format. 24, along with the other scripted series are delivered to the network in HD and are transmitted in HD to the stations via the splicer and then on to your TV.

If the PQ appears grainy, then that is an artistic thing, not a HD thing.

The next step is to stop shooting so much with such closeups. They do those because they are still shooting for the small 4:3 sets but they look stupid on an HD set. If it were a theatrical film you wouldn't see such close-ups that much. There is supposedly another reason they use them: actors can just speak their lines and not worry about their hands or body language.

So, you guys didn't see S5 in HD? Grain is not what we are talking about. Grain is not a PQ problem, whether an artistic decision or just a side effect of film.

S5 appeared overcompressed and lower resolution than S4. Or other shows last year, say....House on the same network. Some episodes were littered with macroblocking that would make the NFL on NBC blush. (ok, not that bad)

There was definitely something wrong with 24's picture quality in Season 5. Season 4 looked terrific, as did about half the episodes in Season 5, but then it suddenly started looking like garbage, extremely soft and dim. I don't know whether they changed the Director of Photography, or just something in the post-production chain, but something was certainly off about it.

Were these "dim" episodes the night episodes? The 8AM-6PM episodes always look great because the exteriors are shot in daylight.

Recall posting that earlier, maybe S4 (EDIT: apparently so ), they were using the Genesis digital-cinema camera for its light sensitivity during night tapings. Seemed to work well with night scenes I saw here, but haven't really compared PQ between seasons. Googling reveals writeups. -- John

They only used the Genesis during some scenes in the last episode. The series is shot on Kodak Expression 500T (I'm assuming they switched to the Vision2 version of it since they don't make the Vision family any more).

I don't remember during which episodes it was, but I do remember that the problem was uniform whether the scenes took place indoors or outdoors.

If it was dark outdoors then the scenes were artificially lit just like indoors. That will affect the picture quality.

They have the CTU set lit pretty well since it's practically a permanent stage when they're shooting the season but they don't get a chance to get that much light on the many other sets and locations since they're only used for one or two episodes.

It was every episode. Dark, light, inside, outside, whatever. Dark was more prone to macroblocking not surprisingly, but the fuzzy was constant. It almost looks like grain, but it is digital noise. (I still have the last 2 episodes on DVR, just checked it out) I have DVDs that appear better. I recorded the season to DVD, and it didn't look much worse knocked down to 480i.

I only saw the last ~1/4 of S4 in HD, but it was clearly better than S5. Let's hope S6 is better than S5, but I'll be watching anyway.

Why are we still talking about this, anyway? I mean, S5 has been over for some time, now.

The subject title: "Will 24 be in HD?" We're speculating on how the PQ will be based on previous seasons which have been over for some time now.

so when does the new season premier???

2 night, 4 hour premiere:

Sunday January 14 8 PM
Monday January 15 8 PM