TRaSH Guides & Recyclarr: Optimal Quality Profiles for Your Seedbox

What Are TRaSH Guides?

TRaSH Guides are the community-maintained gold standard for Sonarr and Radarr configuration. They define:

• Quality profiles: What resolution and source types to prefer
• Custom formats: Scoring rules that rank releases by quality attributes (codec, audio, release group, HDR format, etc.)
• Naming schemes: Consistent file naming for clean libraries

Instead of guessing which settings are best, TRaSH Guides give you battle-tested configurations used by thousands of media server operators.

Why Custom Formats Matter

Without custom formats, Sonarr and Radarr pick releases based on simple quality rankings (1080p > 720p, Bluray > WEB-DL). But quality is more nuanced:

• A 1080p Bluray Remux from a trusted group > a random 1080p WEB-DL
• x264 with proper bitrate > x265 mini-encode at 2GB
• Dual audio > single audio
• HDR10+ > HDR10 > SDR (if your setup supports it)
• Trusted release groups > unknown re-encoders

Custom formats assign scores to these attributes. Sonarr and Radarr use the scores to always pick the best available release.

Setting Up on a Seedbox

Manual Approach

1. Visit trash-guides.info
2. Follow the guide for your desired quality level (e.g., "HD Bluray + WEB" for 1080p)
3. Import the recommended custom formats into Radarr/Sonarr (copy/paste JSON)
4. Create quality profiles with the recommended scores
5. Repeat whenever TRaSH updates their recommendations

This works but is tedious and easy to forget.

Automated Approach: Recyclarr

Recyclarr syncs TRaSH custom formats and quality profiles to your Sonarr and Radarr automatically. Install it, configure once, and it keeps your settings current.

On Bytesized, install Recyclarr from the dashboard.

Configuration

Create a recyclarr.yml config pointing to your Sonarr and Radarr instances:

radarr:
  movies:
    base_url: http://localhost:7878
    api_key: your-radarr-api-key
    quality_profiles:
      - name: HD Bluray + WEB
    custom_formats:
      - trash_ids:
          - movie-versions
          - unwanted
          - hq-source-groups

Recyclarr reads this config, fetches the latest custom formats from TRaSH Guides, and syncs them to your Arr instances.

Recommended Profiles

Profilarr: The Newer Alternative

Profilarr is a newer tool with a web UI for managing quality profiles. It connects to TRaSH Guides and provides a visual interface for configuring scores. If you prefer a GUI over YAML files, Profilarr is worth trying.

Key Custom Format Categories

For Movies (Radarr)

• Movie Versions: Prefer IMAX Enhanced, Director's Cut, Unrated over theatrical
• Unwanted: Block cam recordings, telecines, screeners, upscaled fakes
• HQ Source Groups: Score trusted release groups higher (FraMeSToR, BHDStudio, etc.)
• Audio: Prefer Atmos, TrueHD, DTS-HD MA over compressed audio
• HDR: Score HDR10+, Dolby Vision correctly based on your display

For TV Shows (Sonarr)

• Source: Prefer Bluray over WEB-DL for completed series
• Streaming Services: Score AMZN, NF, ATVP releases (often best WEB quality)
• Anime-specific formats: Dual audio, fansub groups (see anime guide)

The x265 Question

TRaSH Guides recommend blocking x265/HEVC encodes for 720p and 1080p content. Why?

• x265 at 1080p is mostly used for mini-encodes (tiny file size, poor quality)
• x264 at comparable bitrates looks better at 1080p
• x265 is appropriate for 4K content (where it's the standard codec)

The custom format x265 (no HDR/DV) blocks 1080p x265 while allowing 4K x265 with HDR.

Running on Bytesized

Recyclarr runs as a periodic task on your seedbox. Configure it to sync every 24 hours and your quality settings stay current with TRaSH Guide updates. Combined with Bytesized's one-click Sonarr, Radarr, and download clients, you get the optimal setup with minimal effort.

15+ years of seedbox hosting, 4.8/5 Trustpilot from 230+ reviews.

What's Next?

• The complete Arr stack guide
• Anime automation guide
• 4K transcoding
• Browse plans