release groups SPLIT avi's?

[ezE]

I've noticed that here recently I've seen release groups split up a whole movie into 2 avis.
I use convertxtodvd and sometimes it only burns the first part, not the second too!

What can I do?
thanks

[stan]

In Convertxtodvd joining the 2 halves together is called MERGE not join.
Watch this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz-DuAPzgHc

[Appzalien]

Typically the scene splits movies if they want 1400 bits/sec quality but still fit the film on CD's (700mb). So after downloading you can burn the two parts to separate cd's and then swap in the middle of the movie. Its a trade off of quality for the pain of having to swap disks.

When I come accross one of these and I do not want it split, I join the parts together before I convert them so I can see if there are repeat scenes at the join point (a sort of double take when the end of one half has frames repeated at the begining of the next half). I also make sure the audio is in CBR otherwise you can end up with sync problems when you convert to dvd.

Besides, your way behind the times. Almost no one converts avi (700mb) to dvd (4.3gig) anymore. There are too many better options availble to you. If you do not want to take the time to download the entire 4.3 gig, then you should at least buy a divx compatible dvd player for your TV so you can stop the insanity and play avi's directly. Converting 700mb quality into 4.3 gig size is a total waste of space and quality.

[ezE]

how do you check that the audio is in CBR?
that youtube link was extremely helpful thanks

[TONiC]

I've noticed that here recently I've seen release groups split up a whole movie into 2 avis.

LOL. It's been going on for longer than you think ;)

[Appzalien]

For the CBR (constant bit rate) I usually open any avi's I aquire with Gspot Codec Appliance and it will show in the audio info section VBR (variable bit rate) or CBR (I actually prefer GSpot version 2.25b. Then If I see VBR I use Virtual Dub to reprocess the audio. V Dub has a section in its main FILE tab for "File Information" where it will also show you if the audio is vbr and what the bitrate is.
When you convert audio only (video set to Direct Stream which copies only doesn't convert) with audio set to Full processing, you do not lose any quality of the video portion and the audio conversion is not as bad a quality loss as video would be. But keeping the same or close bitrate is important in keeping the resulting file near the same size. Besides converting an mp3 vbr 128kb/s to ac3 cbr 320kb/s is really silly since the file will get bigger but you can never get better than 128kb/s out of it.
V Dub has a bug where the mp3 section will only list up to 56kb/s unless you correct a file in System32 from l3codeca.acm to l3codecp.acm by adding the new cp file you get the full bitrate back and you can leave the ca file alone.
You can also get around the mp3 bug by using Virtual Dub Aud-X Enabled which adds ac3 audio to the mix, and as long as you boost the volume by 246% or so (ac3 is always softer than mp3 or wav) will stay equal in size to the original with the same bitrate used.
The Aud-x sites download page has the enable version and its free and a no install just put it where you want it and make your own shortcut then install the aud-x codec and your good to go. I have found though I lose my Windows Media player visuals unless I open aud-x and uncheck decode AC and Decode MP3 under the config tab which leaves me with decode PCM and decode aud-x/MP3 checked.