Custom Formats
Custom formats match release titles with regular expressions and let a quality profile decide what each match is worth. Use them to prefer a particular audio dub, favour a release group, or refuse a tag outright.
A format on its own means nothing. It gets meaning when a quality profile assigns it a score or marks it as rejecting, so the same format can be worth 100 points in one profile and be grounds for refusal in another.
Where things live
- Admin > Custom Formats defines formats: their name and their patterns.
- Admin > Quality Profiles > (a profile) assigns each format a score or a reject flag for that profile only.
Scoring
Within a resolution tier, a higher total format score wins. Format score is compared before seeders, file size, and source, and after the profile's resolution preference. A format score never promotes a 720p release over a 1080p one when the profile prefers 1080p.
Scores are only meaningful relative to each other. A format worth 100 simply outranks one worth 50; the number does not compete with the general quality score.
A rejecting format drops the release entirely. It never appears as a grab
candidate, and the rejection shows up in Activity with the reason
custom_format: <name>.
Built-in formats
Mydia ships formats for the common French audio tags. They start unassigned, so they do nothing until you give them a score.
| Format | Matches | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| VFF | VFF, TRUEFRENCH |
France French dub |
| VF2 | VF2 |
Second French dub, usually a France redub |
| VFI | VFI |
International French dub, produced in France |
| VFQ | VFQ, VQ |
Quebec French dub |
| MULTI | MULTI |
Multiple audio tracks |
| VOSTFR | VOSTFR |
Original audio with French subtitles, not a dub |
Built-in definitions ship with Mydia, so a later release can improve one of these patterns and you get the fix automatically. If you edit a built-in, your version wins from then on and later improvements no longer apply to it. Use Reset to go back to the shipped definition.
Example: prefer France French, refuse Quebec French
In the quality profile you use for French content:
| Format | Score | Reject |
|---|---|---|
| VFF | 100 | no |
| VF2 | 100 | no |
| VFI | 50 | no |
| MULTI | 50 | no |
| VFQ | 0 | yes |
With this set:
Film.2024.VFF.1080p.WEB-DLscores 100 and is preferred over a better-seeded release with no French tag.Film.2024.MULTI.VFF.1080pscores 150, because both formats match.Film.2024.VFQ.1080p.WEB-DLis rejected and never grabbed.
Writing patterns
Patterns are regular expressions matched against the raw release title. They
are always case-insensitive, so do not add an (?i) flag.
Wrap tags in \b word boundaries. Scene titles separate words with dots and
underscores, which count as boundaries, so \bVFF\b matches
Film.2024.VFF.1080p and does not match a release group whose name happens to
contain those letters.
A format matches when any one of its patterns matches. Put each pattern on its own line.
The edit dialog has a test box: paste a real release title and see which patterns match before saving.
Limits
A pattern must compile, or the format cannot be saved. Patterns are capped at 500 characters and 20 per format. Matching is bounded, so a pattern that would otherwise backtrack forever is abandoned and treated as a miss rather than stalling your searches.
What custom formats do not do
Custom formats apply when deciding what to download. They do not re-evaluate files already in your library, so a file you already have is never automatically replaced because of a format score. To replace one, delete it and search again.