[rplst8]

AFAIK, 48k was preferred over 44.1k in movie and cinema recordings because it divides evenly by 24. Both 44.1k and 48k are evenly divided by 30 and 60 fps. However, none of that really matters for TV where the actual frame rates are 59.97 and 29.98 to reduce flicker with US household mains frequency.

In the early days of digital audio, and before oversampling was possible, the anti aliasing filters were analog circuitry.

It's very difficult to cheaply implement a 20kHz brick wall filter with a 2kHz sideband.

Doing it in 4kHz yielded better results at the cost of slightly faster ADC designs.

I believe this is why 48kHz designs got the foothold in professional audio circles. The analog parts of those designs were WAY better sounding.

Once oversampling became common and affordable, the anti aliasing filters where implemented much more easily in the digital domain.

[adgjlsfhk1]

> to reduce flicker with US household mains frequency This isn't the reason for the odd frequencies (and black and white television was exactly 60i). The reason for the odd frame-rate is that you need to do some very fancy math to fit the color data in the same analog signal without breaking backwards compatibility.

[rplst8]

Ah you're right. It still breaks the "even division" argument though.