Podcast sample rate

[Jim web]

In article <AE26905583134711A329B4706B688921 at RJCDESK>, RS
<richard22j at zoho.com> wrote:
> Vangelis's mention of podcasts has reminded me of another comment I was
> going to make.  A long time ago someone, it may have been Jim, took me
> to task for referring to a 44.1kHz sample rate.  He said it must have
> been a very old file, because the BBC had standardised on a 48kHz
> sample rate.

Afraid I can't recall that. But then my memory is lousy! :-)

> In fact every BBC podcast I have seen, admittedly a tiny sample of the
> population of podcasts, has used a 44.1kHz sample rate.

Are there are recent examples I could get using GiP?

What I know I've said is that the BBC have standardised on 48k. But this is
for their own internal working and for most output - e.g. TV, DAB, and
standard iplayer, etc. There *are* exceptions - e.g. FM Radio distribution
which is 32k, but the public won't have direct access to that. Legacy
problem.

'Podcasts' might for all I know be done by a programme producer. And they
in their infinite wisdom might resample to another rate.


> I read a forum post, probably in something like hydrogenaudio, where
> someone said he resampled everything to 48kHz because the convenience
> of having everything at the same sample rate outweighed a tiny increase
> in quantising noise.  (I worked it out once.  I think for 16 bit linear
> encoding it is about -95dB.)   I can't understand the rationale of
> going the other way. To resample everything that is going to be used as
> a podcast at 44.1kHz seems a huge waste of effort.

The main problem with 48k -> 44.1k resampling is that it will risk adding
artifacts. If you're wanting to save bits it would make more sense to tell
a lossy encoder to simply ignore anything above a given HF limit. (Various
BBC outlets used to do this some years ago.) The result can then remain 48k
rate but have the allocated bits used for more detail at lower frequencies.

Jim

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