For those on Sonarr v3 or preferring simpler configurations, Release Profiles offer a straightforward way to prioritize x265.
If you stream to older devices, web browsers, or legacy tablets that do not support x265, your media server (Plex/Jellyfin) must convert the video to x264 on the fly. Transcoding x265 requires significant CPU power or a modern GPU with hardware acceleration (like Intel Quick Sync or Nvidia NVENC).
You can store almost twice as many episodes for the same disk space. sonarr prefer x265
Before we dive into the code, a word of caution. If you set Sonarr to strictly require x265, you will miss downloads.
: Files are typically 30% to 50% smaller than x264 files at identical visual qualities. For those on Sonarr v3 or preferring simpler
Because Sonarr treats x265 as a codec rather than a "quality" (like 1080p or WEB-DL), you cannot simply move it to the top of a list. Instead, you must use Custom Formats Release Profiles to tell Sonarr that x265 is your preferred choice. 1. Why Prefer x265? Storage Efficiency
If you want to dive deeper into advanced configurations, you can check out community-driven setups on Reddit that include blocking specific audio formats or preferring certain release groups. You can store almost twice as many episodes
Optimizing Your Media Server: Why and How to Configure Sonarr to Prefer x265
This article will guide you through everything you need to know about forcing Sonarr to prefer x265, the pitfalls of transcoding, and the hardware required to actually play these files back.
For the absolute best results, look into . This is a community-maintained repository of highly optimized Regex patterns for Sonarr and Radarr.
If you have many remote users watching via a web browser, do not prefer x265. You will peg your CPU at 100% every time someone watches an episode. You need hardware transcoding (Plex Pass + Intel QSV or NVIDIA NVENC).
