Create a Media Server with Your FxBlox — Part 5— Install Radarr

Photo by S. Widua on Unsplash

Getting a fully automated media server is something we’ve had on our Radarr since we’ve started experimenting with FxBlox 😉. Installing Radarr will be the last step we need to actually be able to request content that we have rights to watch and download. For example, the newly public domain content of this year like Steamboat Willie.

DISCLAIMER: Fierro Labs does not condone the downloading, sharing, or distribution of illegal and copyrighted material without proper authorization. Users are urged to adhere to all applicable laws and regulations governing intellectual property rights. While we advocate for responsible and legal use of file-sharing software like qBittorrent, Prowlarr, Radarr & Sonarr, users are advised to only download and share content for which they have the legal right or proper authorization. Always respect the rights of content creators and copyright holders. We do not accept any liability for damage arising from the use of our services or information contained herein in any manner whatsoever, except where explicitly required by law.

In this guide, we’ll show how to:

• Install Radarr with Docker
• Connect Prowlarr
• Manually add an Indexer
• Add Download Client (qBitTorrent)
• Configure Radarr
• Search for Content

Install Radarr with Docker

Like the apps before this, we are installing Radarr with Docker so that we control where the app downloads to. We can do this with a Radarr specific docker compose file:

---
version: ‘2.1’
services:
  radarr:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/radarr:latest
    container_name: radarr
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=Americas/Los_Angeles #Change to your timezone
    volumes:
      - /media/pi/nvme0n1p1/media-stack/AppData/Config/radarr:/config
      - /media/pi/nvme0n1p1/media-stack/data:/data
    ports:
      - 7878:7878
    restart: unless-stopped
    network_mode: media-stack

You can find your timezone code here: List of tz database time zones — Wikipedia

Here are the same instructions as before to copy/paste this into the location of your choosing. We recommend making a simple folder in the ../media-stack directory:

mkdir /media/pi/nvme0n1p1/media-stack/radarr
cd /media/pi/nvme0n1p1/media-stack/radarr
vim docker-compose.yml

1. Press ‘i’ key
2. Right click paste
3. Press ‘Esc’ key
4. Finally press :wq
5. Run Radarr with docker compose up -d

Now, we can access the Radarr app by going to localhost:7878 or <ip-of-machine>:7878. The first time you access the app, it’ll ask you to create a login. You can make it whatever you would like or none at all.

Connect Prowlarr

If you remember last where left off when setting up Prowlarr was connecting it to Radarr. The one thing we needed was an API key, now that we have Radarr we can complete the task:

In the left hand vertical menu in Radarr, go to:

1. Settings -> General
2. Scroll down to find “API Key” (about the middle of the page)
3. Copy to clipboard

Head back to the Prowlarr app: (localhost:9696)

1. Settings -> Apps
2. Click plus (+) sign
3. Click Radarr, click on “Show Advanced Options” at the bottom of the popup, and use these settings:

• Tags: “movies”
• Prowlarr Server: http://prowlarr:9696
• Radarr Server: http://radarr:7878
• Paste API Key copied from Radarr in the “API Key” box
• Sync Categories: Exclude whatever you don’t want AND movies/x265. (these movie types aren’t exactly compatible with the FxBlox)

4. Test and save.

If you get a red x, look at the error text that displays at the top of that page. Generally double check server addresses and the API Key. You could also get away with http://localhost:port# or http://<ip-of-machine>:port#

After this is done, assuming you have some indexers already selected in Prowlarr, they will just show up in the “Indexers” tab in Radarr.

If the Internet Archive isn’t automatically syncing to Radarr. Then we should try a couple things.

1. Restart both containers with: docker restart prowlarr radarr
2. In Prowlarr: under the “Indexers” tab, click the “Sync App Indexers” button

Manually Add an Indexer (Optional)

If still nothing, then we can add it in manually in Radarr. Go to:

1. Settings -> Indexers
2. Click on the plus (+) sign
3. Click on “Torznab”, and use these settings:

• Name: Internet Archive (Torznab)
• URL: http://prowlarr:9696/<id#> (You can find the id number in Prowlarr, it may not be the same as shown below)

• API Key: You’ll need an API Key from Prowlarr: Settings -> General -> API Key
• Categories: click on all the “movies” options
• Tags: movies

4. Click the check mark, if green then you’re good to go, else follow the errors the app gives you.

Unfortunately, some indexers may need to be set up this way. But now we should be good to go.

Add Download Client

On the left-hand vertical menu, go to:

1. Settings -> Download Clients
2. Click on the plus (+) sign.
3. Scroll down to find qBitTorrent and use these settings:

• Host: qbittorrent
• Enter your username and password for qBT
• Categories: movies

4. Test, and if there is a green check mark, you can save and exit.

If you get a red x, make sure you have your username/password correct for qbittorrent, the hostname is correct, or if you changed the default port, double check it is the right one. (default is 8080)

Configure Radarr

Unfortunately, Radarr isn’t as plug-and-play as we would like, but it’s understandable, because it runs on a wide variety of hardware. So, for our device we are going to configure a couple things.

Back in the left-hand vertical menu, we’ll go to:

1. Settings -> Media Management
2. At the top of the page, click “Show Advanced”
3. Under “Movie Folder Format” type “{Movie Title} ({Release Year})” (no quotes) or you can select the “?” mark to select the title form you would like.
4. Scroll down to find if “Use Hardlinks instead of Copy” box is checked ON, else turn it on
5. Scroll all the way down to “Root Folders”
6. Click “Add Root Folder”
7. And select /data -> media -> movies and click ok
8. Double check path that shows is now data/media/movies

Click Save, at the top of the page. Next, we need to define the encoding and resolution of the movies we want:

1. Settings -> Profiles
2. Click “Any”
3. Deselect CAM, WORKPRINT, TELESYNC, TELECINE, REGIONAL, DVDSCR, Bluray-576p
4. Click Save
5. Do the same for the SD profile.
6. Scroll down to Release Profiles
7. Click plus (+) sign
8. Under “Name”, type “exclude_265” (no quotes)
9. Under “Must Not Contain”, type “x265, h265, x.265, h.265, 265, hevc, HEVC” (no quotes, optional commas or Enter to separate”

Our little FxBlox, currently as of Jellyfin 10.8.13, doesn’t support hardware acceleration. So as not to run into unexpected movie playback issues. It is best we hold off on HEVC (h.265) movies (but it is about to be added in 10.9)! That said, the RK3588 CPU on the Blox can only decode AV1 and encode H264 & HEVC.

Search for Content

Steamboat Willie by Walt Disney, 1928

Now that we have the full media suite set up we can search for a video, download it, and play it all from our FxBlox. In honor of Public Domain Day (January 1st) we will be finding and downloading Steamboat Willie, which debuted Mickey and Minnie mouse in 1928. To do this, within Radarr, in the left-hand vertical menu:

1. Movies -> Add New
2. In the Search Bar type: “Steamboat Willie” (no quotes)
3. It should be the first one and click on it
4. When the popup shows, make sure to have:

• Monitor: Movie Only
• Minimum Availability: Released
• Quality Profile: Any
• And the “Start search for missing movie” checkbox is on

The movie should start automatically downloading, if not, click on Interactive search and you can select the option with an acceptable “Size”. You can click on the Title name to double check what it is you’re downloading.

After you find one you like, you can click on the “Add to download queue” button all the way to the right of that line item. Then, you can see its progress in the Radarr queue and qBitTorrent. If you do not want to Seed the content you just Leeched, remember to double click on the line item within qBitTorrent.

Conclusion

Congrats! You have just downloaded your first torrent using the infamous media stack! After a bit you will be able to enjoy this year’s hottest public domain win, when it finishes downloading.

At this point you could stop and would have completed this series to learn how to automate downloading movies to your very own media server! You basically have completed the guide because Sonarr will be very familiar. All that’s left to do is open up Jellyfin, navigate to movies, and enjoy.

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