Sonarr Prefer 265 [hot] Jun 2026

The TRaSH Guides provide a pre-built Custom Format for HEVC with proper scoring tiers:

: You can save between 25% and 50% of your disk space without a noticeable drop in visual quality.

After setup:

Sonarr doesn’t have a native “prefer 265” toggle. But you can strongly bias it using and Custom Formats . sonarr prefer 265

This ensures Sonarr never downloads H.264 unless absolutely forced.

"Ah-ha!" John exclaimed, excited to try out the new codec. He checked the box and saved his changes. From that moment on, Sonarr would prioritize H.265 encodes for all his TV show downloads.

If some indexers have badly encoded 265 releases: The TRaSH Guides provide a pre-built Custom Format

Optimizing your media library often comes down to balancing high quality with efficient storage. For many users, that means telling Sonarr to over the older h.264 (AVC) standard.

It was a typical Wednesday evening for John, a tech enthusiast who spent most of his free time tweaking his home media server. He was a big fan of Sonarr, a popular tool for automating TV show downloads. As he sat in front of his computer, sipping on a cold beer, he decided to optimize his Sonarr settings for better video quality.

The end.

By following these steps, you can configure Sonarr to prefer H.265 encodes for your TV shows, balancing quality with storage efficiency.

: Smaller files require less bandwidth, which is ideal for remote streaming over slower internet connections.