Getting started · Chapter 4

Setting up profiles.

The profile says which releases a version takes and which ones are better. A version has exactly one profile. You build it in one of three ways: with the assistant, which asks a few questions, by hand for every single number, or by reading it in from a Radarr or Sonarr you already have. In all three cases the rules of the TRaSH Guides are inside.

With the assistant

This is the way to begin. You answer questions in everyday language, and nexcrate builds the whole profile from them: qualities, custom formats, scores and sizes.

1. Create a profile for the version

   Open “Settings › Versions” and choose “Choose a profile” on the version's tile. In the window “Profile of the version Full HD” you type a name under “Name of the new profile”, choose “Add an empty profile” and then “Take this profile”. If profiles exist already, for example read-in ones, you take one of those.

2. Open the profile

   The tile now says “Open the profile”. In the window you see “How is this profile built?” with the two ways “Assistant” and “By hand”. Choose “Assistant” and then “Start with the questions”.

3. Simple or detailed

   The first question is “How much do you want to decide yourself?”. “Simple” asks about resolution, source, language and size, and for everything else it follows what the TRaSH Guides recommend. “Detailed” also asks about audio, video, special cuts and streaming services, for cases where the recommendation is not enough.

4. Answer the questions

   Which resolution you want to end up with, “4K (2160p)” or “1080p”, and what applies while it does not exist yet: “Take what is there first” downloads a lower one now and swaps it later, which means a second download. “Wait until it exists” leaves the version empty. Then the source (“Good encodes”, “Remux” or “Streaming only (WEB)”), the audio tracks, and how large a file may be at most, counted in GB per hour of running time. If several languages are required, the assistant asks whether they all have to be in the same release or whether one is enough.

5. Read the overview

   The last page, “Overview”, says in sentences what your answers turn into: “What nexcrate takes”, the languages, “What is preferred”, the size and “When improving stops”. At the bottom it says how many rules from the TRaSH Guides the profile holds. Only “Save profile” builds the profile.

Set up profile for Full HD

Your profile may later say “Outdated”. That happens when there is a newer state of the TRaSH Guides and you have adopted it. Open the profile and save it, and the new state counts for that profile.

By hand

In the profile's window you switch to “By hand” when the assistant is not enough. There you set things as freely as in Radarr and Sonarr:

• Qualities. The best is on top. You sort by dragging or with the arrows, the tick says whether a quality is taken, and “Same worth” joins qualities into a group.
• When to stop. “Good enough from” names the quality from which upgrading stops, as long as the score is high enough. “Minimum score” says from how many points a release is taken at all. “Upgrade until” and “Smallest step” control when a swap is worth it, and “Allow upgrades” switches it off altogether.
• Custom formats with scores. Every format gets its score here. Zero means it does not count.
• Language and, for series, separate anime rules with other qualities and scores, filled from TRaSH's anime profile if you like.

Profile by hand: Full HD

The order matters here: what you save by hand counts until you save in the assistant again. The assistant then builds the profile anew, and your scores, groups and ticks are gone. nexcrate warns you: “This profile is kept by hand.”

Sizes and custom formats

The sizes and the custom formats apply to all profiles of one type, so they are not in the single profile. You find them under “Settings › Quality”, where you switch between “Profiles”, “Sizes” and “Custom formats”.

• Sizes. For every quality there are “At least”, “At most” and “Preferred”, in MB per minute. “Preferred” shuts nothing out: between two releases equal in everything else, the one nearer to it wins.
• Custom formats. These are building blocks that describe a release, such as a release group, a source or a language. A format only gets its score in the profile of a version. With “Add a format” you build one of your own from conditions, and “Test against a release name” shows whether it fits a release. Formats from the guides are marked “From the guides”, your own “Your own”. If you save a format from the guides, it becomes yours.

Reading in from Radarr or Sonarr

If you have set everything up there, you do not have to build it again. Under “Settings › Import” you choose “Radarr” or “Sonarr”, set up the connection (“Connect Radarr”), and fetch the quality profiles, the custom formats and the sizes with “Fetch the quality and the profiles”. Then you choose which profiles to take. Afterwards nexcrate reports with “Taken over:” how many profiles, formats and sizes it took. Only reading happens; nexcrate never writes to the other program. Switching describes the whole way.

A few things work differently here, and nexcrate lists them in a card “What works differently here”. Delay profiles live at the version under “Protocol and waiting time”, and only the profile without a tag is read. If a file is already there in a quality the profile does not allow, nexcrate leaves it alone, even if it is better than allowed.

Checking without searching

You check whether a release fits without a search. Under “Settings › Versions” the section “Check a release” sits below the tiles. Type the name as it appears at the indexer under “Release name” and choose “Check”. For every version it then says whether the release fits and why not. Nothing is searched or downloaded.

Sharing profiles

In a profile's window “Export” is at the top. It downloads a file ending in .yaml that holds only your answers, no rules. “Import” reads such a file back in, also one from someone who shares their profile. First nexcrate shows with “Check file” how the profile would look for the version, and only “Use this profile” saves it. Because nexcrate builds the profile with its own state of the TRaSH Guides, single scores may differ when the file comes from another state.

If the profile only lacks the place where the files end up, the next chapter is up: Folders.