To achieve this, adjust your scoring logic to reward bitrate indicators while still favoring the codec.
| Term | Rationale | | :--- | :--- | | x265-HDRegion | Known for re-encoding scene releases to tiny sizes with poor quality. | | x265-RMX | Often indicates a re-encode of a re-encode. | | TinyMKV | Indicates extremely aggressive compression. | | PoOlLa | Group known for very low bitrate encodes. | | EMBER | While some releases are okay, they are often outclassed by scene releases. | sonarr prefer x265
This report details the methodology for configuring Sonarr (v3 and v4) to prioritize the x265 codec (HEVC) over the legacy x264 codec (AVC). While x264 remains the standard for broad compatibility, x265 offers significant advantages in storage efficiency and quality retention at lower bitrates. To achieve this, adjust your scoring logic to
| Codec | Regex pattern | |-------|----------------| | | (?i)\b(x265|hevc|h\.?265)\b | | x264/AVC | (?i)\b(x264|h\.?264|avc)\b | | Exclude x265 (negative) | -(?i)\b(x265\|hevc)\b | | | TinyMKV | Indicates extremely aggressive compression
: Ensure your "Upgrade Until" quality is set high enough, and that you have enabled Allow Upgrades . Sonarr will now see an x265 release as a "better" version of the same quality. 3. (Optional) Set Negative Scores for x264
After applying these settings, perform an audit on existing library behavior:
Sonarr Prefer x265: The Complete Guide to Automating HEVC Downloads