How to Configure Sick Beard for Perfect Downloads Sick Beard is a powerful automated PVR for television show downloads. It watches for new episodes of your favorite series and fetches them as soon as they are available.
Follow this step-by-step guide to configure Sick Beard for flawless, hands-off automation. 1. General Settings and Interface
Start by launching Sick Beard and navigating to Configuration > General.
Set Port: Default is 8081. Change it if it conflicts with other software.
Enable Launch Browser: Keeps the interface accessible upon startup.
Set Credentials: Create a strong username and password to secure your web interface. 2. Configure Your Search Providers
Sick Beard needs to know where to look for your episodes. Go to Configuration > Search Providers.
Provider Priorities: Check the boxes for the Usenet indexers or torrent providers you use.
API Keys: Enter your custom API keys for premium NZB indexers to ensure high-speed, reliable search results.
Order Providers: Drag your best-performing, most reliable indexers to the top of the list. 3. Link Your Download Client
Sick Beard finds the files, but your download client does the heavy lifting. Go to Configuration > Download喜 Settings.
Select Client: Choose your software (e.g., SABnzbd, NZBGet, or a torrent client).
Enter URL: Input the local host address and port of your downloader.
Authentication: Paste the API key or NZBkey from your download client to link them securely.
Category: Set the category to tv so your client routes files to the correct temporary folder. 4. Optimize Search Frequency
Fine-tune how often Sick Beard scans the web under Configuration > Search Settings.
Search Frequency: Set the default search timer to 60 minutes. This catches new releases quickly without spamming your indexers.
Download Propers: Enable this option. It allows Sick Beard to automatically replace flawed releases with fixed (“proper”) versions. 5. Automate Post-Processing
Post-processing moves, renames, and cleans up your downloaded files. Go to Configuration > Post-Processing.
TV Download Directory: Point this to the folder where your download client saves completed TV files.
Keep Original Files: Uncheck this if you want to save hard drive space by deleting the clutter left behind by downloaders.
Naming Pattern: Customize how your episodes are labeled (e.g., Season %s/%Show Name - S%0eE%0e - %Episode Title). Clean naming helps media players like Plex index your library perfectly.
Metadata: Select your media player (like Kodi or Plex) to automatically generate poster art and episode summaries during processing.
To tailor this setup to your specific home media ecosystem, could you share a bit more information?
Which download client are you using (e.g., SABnzbd, NZBGet, qBittorrent)?
What media server will host the final files (e.g., Plex, Kodi, Jellyfin)?
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