I was advised recently that I could use the much smaller .pbf file rather than .bz2 from Geofabrik, but that I had to use a particular splitter, in this case r161-3.  This, I did.  I wonder, though, how it is known what particular splitter version to use with, say, the next .pbf file I choose to use.  I note, too, that the current splitter page displays r-170 only.  I am sure it displayed more when I used it recenty, such as r161-3, for example, which I now find at http://89.16.174.14/detail/8.