Sonarr Prefer X265 -

To understand why you would configure this preference, you must understand the difference between the codecs.

The Verdict: If you have limited hard drive space or pay for cloud storage (like Google Drive or Dropbox), preferring x265 is a financial necessity. If you have a massive local server with enterprise-grade drives, sticking to x264 may offer slightly better source consistency, but x265 is undoubtedly the future.

This is where the magic happens.

How Scoring Works:

Release Profiles let you score releases or block based on words. sonarr prefer x265

Create boosts to favor x265:

Create blocks for unwanted releases:

Notes:

If you want to be precise and avoid bad quality x265 releases, the community standard is to use the TRaSH Guides custom formats. They offer a pre-made JSON collection that is superior to manual creation. To understand why you would configure this preference,

Before you commit to a library full of x265, you must review your playback devices.

  • HDR Issues: Many x265 releases contain HDR (High Dynamic Range). If you play HDR content on a non-HDR screen, colors look washed out (grey/purple). You need a player that supports tone-mapping (like Plex with an Nvidia GPU) to fix this automatically.

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