v2 or v3

This article is written for the v2 iteration of Custom Formats. As Custom formats have been reworked significantly in V3 (Aphrodite), a separate wiki page here has been created for information relevant to the V3 version, however, the Matching section below is still valid.

1. Custom Formats

2. Format Tags

3. Matching

4. Templates

Custom Formats

Custom Formats allow you to extract additional information about releases and automate the decision process to not only grab releases with better attributes but also avoid grabbing or outright reject releases that are not up to standard. While the Quality scale still outranks Custom Formats, at an equal Quality, releases that have the most highest-ranking Custom Format matches will be preferred over those with fewer or lower-ranking matches. In addition to the Quality cutoff, Custom Formats have their own cutoff that applies in the automatic upgrade process. Custom formats are ranked in a list m and upgrading stops when at least one Custom Format match is above the custom format cutoff.

A custom format is a set of one or more "Format Tags" that Radarr tries to match against the information parsed from a release or file. For more information on how exactly Format Tags match, see Format Tags and Matching.

Format Tags

A Format Tag consists of three parts: The Tag Prefix, the Tag Modifier (optional) and the Tag Value.

Format: PREFIX_MODIFIER_VALUE or PREFIX_VALUE

The Prefix determines the type of Format Tag and what it matches against.

The Modifier changes how the matching occurs.

The Value is used for the matching.

Format Tag Types

Name	Tag Prefix	Possible Values / Examples	Notes
Source Deprecated	S_	S_WORKPRINT, TODO add all final values here	This tag is matched against the source where a release was ripped from.
Resolution Deprecated	R_	R_480, R_576, R_720, R_1080, R_2160	This tag is matched against the resolution parsed from either the release name or media info (if available)
Modifier Deprecated	M_	M_SCREENER, M_REMUX, M_BRDISK, TODO add all final values here	This tag is matched against any modifiers Radarr may parse, such as whether the release is a remux or a full bluray disk.
Language	L_	L_English, L_German, etc.	This tag is matched against any language(s) Radarr parses. All languages previously selectable in profiles work here.
Indexer Flags	I_	I_GFreeleech, I_GHalfleech, etc. See Indexer Flags for a comprehensive list.	This tag is matched against any Indexer Flags Radarr may parse.
Edition	E_	E_Director, E_theatrical, E_EXTENDED, ...	This tag is matched against any Editions Radarr may parse. You can put any value after E_ and Radarr will try to match that against what it parsed (case-insensitive).
Custom	C_	C_Surround, C_YIFI, C_-Framestor, C_h264, ...	This tag is matched against the whole release name (case-insensitve). You can put any value after C_.
Size	G_	G_10<>20, G_15.4444<>20.3333, ...	This tag is matched against the release size. The release size is converted to gigabytes and compared against the values x and y, where the format tag looks like this: `G_x<>y`. In other words, the release size must be between the two values specified between this tag, separated by <>.

Format Tag Modifiers

Name	Abbreviation	Notes
Regex	RX	CHANGED FROM R TO RX Is only useful for Edition and Custom Format Tags. Makes it, that Radarr parses the value of the Format Tag as a Regex and uses the Regex for matching.
Negate	N	Negates the Format Tag, i.e. when it normally matches it won't and when it normally wouldn't match it does.
Required	RQ	CHANGED FROM RE TO RQ Makes the Format Tag strongly required. More on that later.

Format Tags Examples

Example of Tag	Example Release Name	Matching	Does it Match?
S_BLURAY	Prometheus.2012.Bluray.1080p	S_BLURAY == S_BLURAY	YES
S_WEBDL	Prometheus.2012.Bluray.1080p	S_BLURAY == S_WEBDL	NO
S_N_WEBDL	Prometheus.2012.Bluray.1080p	S_BLURAY != S_WEBDL	YES
R_1080	Prometheus.2012.Bluray.1080p	R_1080 == R_1080	YES
R_576	Prometheus.2012.Bluray.1080p	R_1080 == R_576	NO
M_REMUX	Prometheus.2012.Bluray.1080p	M_NONE == M_REMUX	NO
M_REMUX	Prometheus.2012.Bluray.Remux.1080p	M_REMUX == M_REMUX	YES
L_English	Prometheus.2012.Bluray.1080p	[L_English] contains L_English	YES
L_French	Prometheus.2012.Bluray.MULTI.FRENCH.ENGLISH.1080p	[L_English, L_French] contains L_French	YES

Matching

How does Radarr decide if a custom format matches a release or not?

Custom Formats with only one Format Tag are simple; if that Tag matches, the Custom Format matches.

Custom Formats that include more than one Tag are slightly more complicated. Tags of different types are separated into different groups and multiple tags of the same type are placed into the same group. At least one Tag of each type must match for the Custom Format to match.

For example, if you were matching a custom format with the following tags against a 1080p WEB-DL release, despite the Resolution tag matching in both cases:

S_Bluray (NO MATCH), R_1080 (MATCH) Will be discarded since a Source type tag is present and does not match.
S_Bluray (NO MATCH), S_WEBDL (MATCH), R_1080 (MATCH) Will be accepted since one of the Source tags matches thus satisfying the whole Source type group.

When two or more tags of the same type are used, the Required modifier (RQ) can be added to make the group matchings more strict. A custom format that contains a Required tag will be discarded if the tag does not match, regardless of if another tag in that same type group matches. Groups with multiple Required tags must satisfy all of them to not be discarded. This can be particularly useful when using multiple Custom type tags looking for different criteria to ensure that all of the tags must match.

Every custom format you create will be scanned and matched against in all of your profiles. If a custom format is checked in the profile settings, matching releases will be considered for download, however, if you uncheck a custom format, any matching releases will be actively rejected in the same way that unchecked Qualities are actively rejected. There is no way to only apply custom formats to certain profiles. See an example here with a bluray custom format.

The "None" format will be applied to any releases that do not match with any of your other custom formats. This can be useful for placing higher in the list when used with custom formats that match with attributes you find undesirable, such as hardcoded subs, or when unchecked to reject those odd releases that have slipped through your well-crafted custom format hierarchy.

Templates

Radarr provides a wide range of predefined templates. They are explained below and sometimes have tips on customizing them.

x264

Description: This custom format matches any releases that are encoded with the x264 (sometimes called h264) codec.

Usage: This format is useful, if you have a lot of older devices that struggle with the new x265 codec and you want Radarr to upgrade all movies to x264.

x265

Description: This custom format matches any releases that are encoded with the x265 (sometimes called h265 or HEVC) codec.

Usage: This format is useful, if most of your devices support h265 and you want to decrease storage usage by downloading h265 copies of all your movies.

Simple Hardcoded Subs

Description: This custom format matches any releases that have "sub" or "subs" in their release title.

Usage: This format is useful, if most of your releases with hardcoded subs are matched by this. By moving this custom format to below the "None" option in your profile, Radarr will try to upgrade releases that match this format, to one without this. Therefore, Radarr will replace releases with hardcoded subs with ones that do not have hardcoded subs.

Multi Language

Description: This custom format can be used as a template to highlight releases with multiple languages. By default it matches releases that contain either English, French or Both as languages.

Usage: This format can be easily customized by adding or removing desired languages.