Fox declined to comment for this article. But a low-level post-production engineer, speaking off the record, laughed when I asked.

For the uninitiated, "lossless" refers to audio and video data compressed without any generation loss—think FLAC for sound, or FFV1 for video. It’s the master tape. The original signal. The difference between hearing a joke and feeling the punchline in the waveform.

"Lossless Family Guy ? Half the original Season 09 audio was recorded in a closet on a $40 mic. You’re looking for vinyl warmth from a photocopier. But let them search," he said. "It keeps the bitrate nerds from asking about Season 04."

"I have seventeen copies of Season 09. Web-DL. HDTV. Blu-ray remux. They’re all lossy in different ways. The Blu-ray has better video but the dialogue normalization is crushed. The HDTV capture has original commercials but a hiss on the rear channels. The true lossless? It’s like The Big Lebowski ’s rug. It would really tie the room together."