[IceSentry]

Why use a separate instance for 4k? Can't you just use a separate quality profile? And why a separate one for anime? It seems unnecessary to me.

[Cyph0n]

For Radarr, it's for cleaner separation and easier automation. Also, keep in mind that you cannot have the same movie with two qualities on the same instance.

My 4K instance has one root path (different from non-4K) and one quality profile that's auto-selected by default. Using the Radarr connect option, I have a quality profile on the non-4K instance that automatically adds the movie to the 4K instance. This way, you can ensure you have both 4K and non-4K copies of certain movies (e.g., for external access/transcoding). You also ~never need to actually interact with the 4K instance. See this page for details: https://trash-guides.info/Radarr/Tips/Sync-2-radarr-sonarr/

For Sonarr, it's also for separation, but less of an issue if you're on Sonarr v4. The one thing you gain even on v4 is the ability to have different quality definitions for anime and non-anime content. See: https://trash-guides.info/Sonarr/Sonarr-Quality-Settings-Fil...

[Zircom]

There are anime specific trackers that are better for downloading anime from, especially if you're looking for non-English subs, but radarr doesn't have a way to tell it to use a specific tracker for a particular series, so having a separate radarr instance with only those trackers on it ensures it downloads from them everytime.

[WXLCKNO]

Pretty sure the 4k thing is a hard limitation due to not being able to select the same root path or something. I don't remember tbh.

For anime first time I've heard that suggestion but anime in general is super annoying to download due to not having real seasons or whatever often. Wonder how it helps..

[Zircom]

I have a separate radarr for anime because there's are anime specific trackers that are much better for downloading anime, especially if you are looking for non-English subs, but radarr doesn't have a way to pick a specific tracker to download a particular series from. So my anime radarr instance only has those specific trackers on it so it will download from them everytime.

[panda88888]

Which non-English subs do you look for? I try to look for Chinese subs and it’s been a struggle to find good tracker.

[Zircom]

What might be easier than a whole separate Chinese tracker, Plex at least has a pretty robust feature where you can have it automatically find and download subtitles in whatever language you set. Only problem there is sometimes the timing is a little off with the actual video so the subs don't pop up at the right time, but you can change the offset with just a few clicks until it's right and then usually it's the same for every episode going forward.

If you're not using Plex or find it doesn't work so well for Chinese subs, can also try bazarr which does the same thing with subs but is a standalone software.

So with the above setup you can download the actual series from wherever and then it'll fetch Chinese subs for you and add them automatically. Otherwise for actual Chinese trackers try share.dmhy.org and mikanani.me for public trackers.

Feel free to shoot me an email(in my profile) if you need any advice or help setting anything up :)

[jabroni_salad]

With anime people are wayyy picker about release groups because they come part and parcel with fanmade translated subtitles, preference for which track is the default for dual-language releases, are all the honorifics written out, etc.

You either have to commit those preferences to a tag that you try to remember to put on everything (fiddly), or you just commit to them being on everything you download regardless of whether or not it is anime, which can cause weird selections when sonarr is sourcing western media.