Skip to main content
Every release that Radarr or Sonarr evaluates gets a total custom format score — the sum of all matched custom format scores for that release. The profile’s scoring thresholds then decide whether to grab it, keep it, or upgrade away from it.

​
Profile score settings

A release will only be grabbed if its total custom format score meets or exceeds this value.The Movies 1080p profile sets this to 750:
minCustomFormatScore: 750
This means a completely unrecognized release (score 0) will be ignored. A release must match at least one positively-scored format — such as a known WEB tier group — before it is considered.The TV 1080p profile sets this to 0, meaning any release that isn’t actively penalized to a negative score is eligible to grab. This is appropriate for TV where availability is more variable.
Radarr/Sonarr will keep replacing an existing file with a better-scoring release until the file’s score reaches this value.Both the Movies 1080p and TV 1080p profiles set this to 10000:
upgradeUntilScore: 10000
Because no release in practice can score 10000, this effectively means always upgrade when a better release is found (subject to minScoreIncrement).
A new release must score at least this many points higher than the current file before an upgrade is triggered.Both profiles set this to 1:
minScoreIncrement: 1
This means any measurable improvement — even a single point — will trigger an upgrade. Combined with upgradeUntilScore: 10000, the arr app will continuously chase the best available release.
When set to true, Radarr/Sonarr will replace an already-downloaded file if a higher-scoring release becomes available.
upgradesAllowed: true
Both Movies 1080p and TV 1080p have this enabled. Without it, the arr app grabs a release once and never replaces it, regardless of scoring.
The language field controls how Radarr/Sonarr filters releases by language.
  • must_original — Only releases in the original language of the media are allowed. A French film must be sourced in French; an English film must be in English. This is the stricter setting and is used by both Movies 1080p and TV 1080p.
  • original — The original language is preferred but not required. Releases in other languages may still be grabbed if no original-language release is available.
language: must_original

​
Positive and negative scores

Custom format scores can be positive (preferred) or negative (penalized).
Score rangeMeaning
Positive (e.g. 1700)Release is preferred — higher = more desirable
Small negative (e.g. -50)Release is penalized but may still be grabbed
-10000Release is effectively blocked — will never be grabbed
The -10000 convention is used throughout the profiles to hard-block unwanted formats. From Movies 1080p: 
- name: 3D
  score: -10000
- name: AV1
  score: -10000
- name: Bad Naming Scheme
  score: -10000
- name: BR-DISK
  score: -10000
- name: Banned Groups
  score: -10000

​
Worked example: WEB Tier 01 vs hallowed

Consider two releases of the same movie in the Movies 1080p profile:
ReleaseMatched formatScore
Movie.2023.1080p.WEB-DL-NTbWEB Tier 011700
Movie.2023.1080p.WEB-DL.BHDStudioBHDStudio550
Both releases clear the minCustomFormatScore of 750. If the BHDStudio release (score 550) is already downloaded, the NTb WEB Tier 01 release scores 1150 points higher — well above minScoreIncrement: 1 — so an upgrade is triggered automatically. Once the NTb release is downloaded (score 1700), no further upgrade happens unless an even higher-scoring release appears.

​
Score assignments in Movies 1080p

Here is a representative excerpt of the custom format score assignments from the Movies 1080p profile: 
custom_formats_radarr:
  - name: WEB Tier 01
    score: 1700
  - name: WEB Tier 02
    score: 1650
  - name: WEB Tier 03
    score: 1600
  - name: WEB Tier 04
    score: 1550
  - name: WEB Tier 05
    score: 1500
  - name: 1080p Bluray Tier 01
    score: 1100
  - name: hallowed
    score: 600
  - name: BHDStudio
    score: 550
  - name: Baseline Groups
    score: 500
  - name: Dolby Digital +
    score: 125
  - name: Missing Audio Channels
    score: -50
  - name: 3D
    score: -10000
  - name: Banned Groups
    score: -10000
Tier 01 groups are scored highest, with each subsequent tier 50 points lower. This creates a clear preference hierarchy among known release groups without completely blocking lower-tier releases.
You can override the behavior of any individual format by adjusting its score directly on your profile in Radarr or Sonarr. For example, if you want to allow x265 HD re-encodes, set the score of the x265 (HD) format to 0 — it will no longer penalize those releases.

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Get started for freeTalk to us