Sonarr Prefer X265 Here

Before you commit to a library full of x265, you must review your playback devices.

HDR Issues: Many x265 releases contain HDR (High Dynamic Range). If you play HDR content on a non-HDR screen, colors look washed out (grey/purple). You need a player that supports tone-mapping (like Plex with an Nvidia GPU) to fix this automatically.

Creating the format does nothing until you attach it to a Profile.

Goal: Ensure Sonarr only accepts the resolutions/bitrates you want, and that cutoff corresponds to the preferred x265 quality. sonarr prefer x265

Example profile named "Prefer x265":

Notes:

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).

For power users, here is the ultimate JSON block for an x265 "prefer" format. Save this as a .json file and import it into Sonarr via Settings → Custom Formats → Import. Before you commit to a library full of


  "name": "✅ x265 / HEVC (Prefer)",
  "includeCustomFormatWhenRenaming": false,
  "specifications": [
"name": "x265 or HEVC",
      "implementation": "ReleaseTitleSpecification",
      "negate": false,
      "required": false,
      "fields": h)\\.?265\\b
    ,
"name": "Not x264",
      "implementation": "ReleaseTitleSpecification",
      "negate": true,
      "required": false,
      "fields": \\bavc\\b"
]

x265 requires significantly more processing power to decode.