I only download 1080p unless it's something like LOTR that I'll splurge on space for. A comedy doesn't need spectacular visual fidelity.
Just downloaded a 44gb file for a 1080p version of Forest Gump, and I'm just kinda not interested in filling my hard drives with excessive file sizes. Noticed that some other films are 20gb and 13gb, etc, still way too big for what they are.
Any way to maybe have radarr have a file size preference? Like, for 1080p I don't need it to be any bigger than 3gb, and most movies can be 1.5gb and be fine
Edit: I have to say, I asked a beginner/basic question and no one here has tried to belittle me, or come at me with hostility, I've only gotten helpful advice. Thank you all!
You got a remux, which is uncompressed. You can turn those off in Radarr to avoid those surprises.
If you want to fine-tune your file sizes (and quality) further, you can set up custom formats and quality profiles. The Trash Guides explain it well, the "HD Blu-ray + Web" profile on that page is a solid starting point. It'll usually grab 6-12GB movies, but you can tweak it if you want them smaller.
Doesn't Trash Guides prefer larger files though? Iirc if you just do everything as they recommend you'll always be grabbing the highest quality stuff available, which is the opposite of what this person wants.
You can do this with custom formats. You'd want to create a custom format that gives a score if the file is below a certain size threshold (say 1.5GB per hour), then add minimum custom scores to the release profiles you use (e.g. Bluray 1080p). You can also add custom filters for release groups that prioritise file size. YTS for example keeps their releases as small as possible.
Most modern devices should support x265 playback which has the compression sizes you are looking for.
In addition to setting the cap to file sizes for media, you can also blacklist tags like REMUX etc.
This is an example of a custom format for hevc/x265 files that are no larger than 6Gigs. You just need to create a new custom quality profile and give below custom format a positive/higher score.
Yep, this is a good option for reducing file size at the expense of compatibility and CPU time. Every time OP downloads a file they'll then have to reencode the file, which can take significant time, depending on the CPU of their NAS box, the file size, etc. It's also worth noting that reencodes are lossy, so some amount of quality will be lost (although the quality difference may be imperceptible).
If disk space is the only variable we're optimizing for, then you're 100% correct, but I think it's worth calling out that this definitely isn't without tradeoffs.
It might also be worth considering how they're consuming this media. If the client isn't capable of playing back h265 then this will need to be transcoded again to play it back. Many media servers (like Plex) handle this automatically, but it's definitely worth testing this out with your setup on a couple of files before doing this on your whole media collection.
I use tdarr on my gaming machine and use the higher end GPU to do the work. I also use the trash guide for getting the audio profile I want in my downloads. Then in tdarr, I strip away audio and subtitle languages I don't want and use the highest quality audio source to add a simple 2 channel audio to make it more compatible for more devices. That way I'm not needlessly transcoding 5.1 Dolby for people who are just watching on TV audio.
In the profiles? Not sure if that's the correct term, but there's settings for all the quality profiles 720p 1080p etc with a slider that can set minimum and maximum size for that quality.
Be sure to avoid "remux" quality. I didn't know what this meant at first - it's a file with no compression an uncompressed 1:1 copy of the source, so even "low-resolution" video files can be truly massive. A 1080p movie should be between 2GB-10GB or so; I've found that remuxes are typically 15GB-50GB, or even larger.
So, what you said - it's a 1:1 copy of the source. With no compression. Which is what I said, as far as I can tell?
What I don't understand is why the article says it allows for smaller file sizes, when I've found without fail that remuxes are the largest variety by far. It made sense to me that a file produced without compression would be larger than the same file, compressed.
44gb for 1080 seems to be a remux file, which is the source of channel not converted but only repackaged. Just remove remux from your profiles and sed radarr to upgrade to other 1080 profiles by moving remux down in the list.