SABNZBD, Sickbeard & Couchpotato Guide.

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Syphonx

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SABNZBD, Sickbeard & Couchpotato Automation Guide

This guide is for fully automating SAB, Sickbeard (SB) and Couchpotato (CP) on a windows PC, but can be used for other platforms. This setup makes use of scripts for post processing. It also assumes you are using XBMC as your media centre but its fine if you use something else.​

What are they?​

SABNZBD: This is your download client, you open NZB’s with it and it will download those files for you. Same way that utorrent downloads torrent files for you.

Sickbeard: This is a TV show automation and management program. It will keep track of your shows, download them automatically and do any sorting and renaming that’s required. Think of it as an internet based PVR, except much better than any PVR you’ve ever used.

Couchpotato: This is the same as Sickbeard except it manages movies instead of TV shows.

These 3 programs interact with each and this means for the most part your downloads will be automated and you won’t need to lift a finger.

What you need:​

Assuming you’ve already chosen a usenet provider and have access to an NZB indexer (don’t worry too much, there are some built in ones to start off with). See more here: http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/588947-Usenet-Guide

Now we need to download a few things (links are for windows versions):
Sickbeard: https://code.google.com/p/sickbeard/downloads/list
SABNZBD: http://sourceforge.net/projects/sab....7.16/SABnzbd-0.7.16-win32-setup.exe/download
Couchpotato: https://couchpota.to/

Once downloaded we can move on to the install process.

SABNZBD Install:​

1. Run the .exe you downloaded.
2. Choose your preferred language
3. Next page click accept
4. On the following page you want to tick the boxes: Sabnzbd, run at startup and NZB file association.
5. Choose your install location (default is fine but just note where it is)
6. Finish the install
7. Go to the install location and run SABNZBD.exe
8. Your browser will now open up on the quickstart wizard, choose a language and start the wizard.
9. Enter the server details provided to you by your usenet provider or those of your ISP (see previous usenet guide). If the test is successful you can proceed.
10. Tick the box “I want SABNZBD to be viewable by any PC on my network”. This will let you control SABNZBD from any devices with a browser on the same network. The other settings can be left blank or changed depending on your preferences although a username and password is recommended if you want remote access.
11. Once SABNZBD has restarted click on the link. This is the website address of SABNZBD, remember to bookmark it, it is hosted locally on your PC and is not a link to an internet based website. SABNZBD is controlled through a browser interface allowing you to access it from anywhere in the world if so desired.
12. Next part of the guide is the configuration process.

SABNZBD Configuration:​

At the top of SAB’s default page is a config button, select that. The first tab we want to go to is the General tab on the left.​

General:​
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On this page you can change the port (leave as is though), add a username and password which is suggested if you are planning to remotely access SAB. You can also change the interface but I find the default is very good. You can also find your API key here which allows Sickbeard, Couchpotato and other apps to interact with and control SAB. It also allows you to automatically add NZB’s from NZB index sites to your queue instead of downloading them first. The cleanup list at the bottom helps keep your PC clean and tidy, otherwise you may end up with hundreds of folders full of .nfo and other files you don’t need.​

Folders:​
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Here you can choose where you want unfinished downloads to be stored and where finished downloads should be moved to. The post processing scripts folder is important, it points to where all the scripts that you want to use in SAB are. Create a scripts folder in the SAB install or wherever you want, remember where it is because we will come back to it later.​

Switches:​
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Firstly you want SAB to abort jobs if they cannot be finished, otherwise you’ll just be wasting bandwidth. Secondly you don’t want the samples to be downloaded; this is another waste of bandwidth. Selecting the “post process only verified jobs” option means that multi file downloads (season or movie packs) won’t be processed if one of the movies or episodes fails to extract properly. I however want the completed ones to be processed so I unchecked this one. At the bottom is quota options, this might be useful for mweb clients :p and those with capped accounts. More here: http://wiki.sabnzbd.org/configure-switches-0-7​

Servers:​
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You can add all your usenet providers here, if they offer SSL then use it, just remember to use the SSL port and not the normal port. I set timeout to 120 and all other settings can be found on the respective provider’s website and the email they will send when you sign up. The backup server option is for block accounts (capped usenet accounts) to limit data usage. The optional box is for servers that are not that reliable.​

Scheduling:​
This is so you can schedule downloads at times when your network is quiet to avoid impacting on other activities such as streaming. If your ISP offers extra data at night you can use the scheduling to take advantage of this.​

Notifications:​
I haven’t used this but some may find it useful.​

Categories:​
UbXXNn1.png

This is important for fully automating your setup. Organising content into categories will let your content managers (SB and CP) know which downloads are for them and which aren’t. You need to create a category for movies and Tv shows. You can have many more categories such as for music, games, software, ebooks etc. You can give them whatever priority you prefer and finished jobs will be moved into the folder you specify. Movies need to have their own folder to keep it separate and to avoid issues with CP post processing. Sickbeard does not need a folder because we will be using the script. However we will come back here once we are done installing sickbeard. For now you can configure your movies category settings.
​

Sorting:​
We won’t be using SAB’s sorting, NOTHING should be enabled.​

That’s it for now, onto Sickbeard.​
 
Sickbeard​
Sickbeard Install:​

1. Unzip the Sickbeard file you downloaded
2. Now you need to decide where you want to copy it to, Sickbeard runs out of the folder and is not installed on your system so put the folder somewhere out of the way.
3. Run the Sickbeard exe in the folder.
4. Allow any permissions required
5. Sickbeard will now open your browser and the install is done, remember to bookmark this page. It has a web based user interface just like SABNZBD.
6. For Sickbeard to run at startup (which you want) copy the Sickbeard.exe, now go Start/All Programs/Startup and when in the startup folder right click and select paste shortcut. Sickbeard will now run when you login.
7. Time for the configuration.

Sickbeard Configuration:​

On the homepage look for config at the top and select general.​

General:​
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On this page you can configure a username and password (again recommended for remote access), change the port (but you should leave it at the default 8081) and also includes your SB API key for interactions with apps etc.​

Search Settings:​
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Firstly enable download propers. Set your search frequency, remember a higher frequency increases API hits on indexing sites but a frequency too low can result in DMCA takedowns affecting some content. The retention should be set to the retention of your usenet provider with the highest retention.
Since we want SAB to handle our downloads select it as your NZB method. Your SAB url is the url of the default SAB webpage. Copy and paste it in. If you set up a username and password on SAB put these in. Also copy over the SAB API key from the SAB general config page. The SABNZBD category in Sickbeard must match the name of the category for TV shows in the category page of SAB.

Remember that scripts folder you created earlier? Well now we are going to use it. Go to your sickbeard folder and copy the contents of the autoProcessTV folder into the scripts folder. There should be a file called autoProcessTV.cfg.sample, rename it to autoProcessTV.cfg. Now open it with notepad and edit what is required. Host=localhost, Port=8081 and then your sickbeard username and password if you set it up, otherwise leave those blank. The port number is the port number for Sickbeard, if you changed it it won’t be 8081.

Now go back to SAB and go to categories, in the TV category select the script box and choose SabToSickBeard.exe. Save this. Remember it must be the .exe because we are on windows. The auto processing script should now be operational.
​

Search Providers:​
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These are your NZB providers/index sites. Sickbeard searches them for the required NZB files. The two free ones (Womble and Sick Beard Index) should be enabled. Any other sites that you are a member of which offer API access (might require a donation) can also be added. Remember you need the API key from those sites, not the SAB,SB or CP API key.​

Post Processing:​
CuPhpyR.png

Only enable rename episodes in the post processing sub section, everything else will be handled by the script and must NOT be enabled.
The naming convention is totally up personal preference.
Metadata is extra info such as plot, airing date, episode name, actors, screenshots and fanart that can be used by your media centre to enhance the experience. If you want metadata select the media centre that you use and tick which metadata you want (probably all of it).
​

Notifications:​
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You can set SB to send notifications to any device or app you like from here. Using XBMC you need to set the IP address of XBMC (make sure its static) and port (can be found in XBMC settings) as well as any username or password required. The default username is XBMC and default password is blank. The benefit of ticking the library update boxes is that your library will be instantly updated the second a download is completed and processed. XBMC won’t need to constantly scan your library for new content.
​

Now For Couchpotato​
 
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Couchpotato​

Couchpotato Install:​

1. Run the .exe
2. Select Run Couchpotato at startup.
3. Install
4. Click finish and allow any requested permissions; your browser will now open the Couchpotato welcome page.
5. You can scroll down to make the options available but for now just scroll to the bottom and press the big green button. We will do the configuration in the next part.
6. Bookmark the page you are on.
7. Configuration time.

Couchpotato Configuration:​

Click the cog at the top right and select settings.​

General:​
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Here you can set username and password, change the port (remember that changing this means you need to update the bookmark) and enable updates (recommended).​

Searcher:​
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You don’t want always search enabled unless you like fakes for some reason. I find daily searches every 8 hours are sufficient. Make sure to enable the free providers and add any of your own as well. As with SB retention should be set to that of your usenet provider with the highest retention.​

Categories:​
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Set words and phrases to refine your required quality and to exclude releases and qualities you don’t want, be careful not to exclude legit downloads.​

Qualities:​
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Here you can create quality profiles, exclude the ones you won’t use and set the size parameters for downloads, be careful not to exclude legit releases with size parameters that are too specific.​

Downloaders:​
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You can use the same url and API key for SAB here as you used in Sickbeard in the Search Settings page. The category should be the same name as your movies category in SAB, if not movies may not be put in the right folders for post processing.​

Renamer:​
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The renaming options are again personal preference. The “To” box can be your movies folder if you want, processed movies will automatically be moved there. The “From” box must match the directory for movies you set in the categories page of SAB. “Force Every” can be changed if you want.​

Metadata:​
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The only options for metadata here are for windows media centre and XBMC. A media management program such as Media Companion will give you a much more comprehensive list of options, however since this an automated setup we will rely on the inbuilt options (tick all boxes) which should be sufficient.​

Manage:​
You can use this if you want CP to manage other movies in your library as well.​

Notifications:​
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This is the same deal as the Sickbeard notifications.​

Automation:​
You can set CP to download movies from wishlists or to autograb the highest rated movies from IMDB or other movie sites. Be careful as automation may result in a lot of downloads at first.​
 
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How to use SAB, SB & CP:​

SAB:​
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Pretty self-explanatory, you can pause and unpause the queue or individuals downloads here, change their priority and the category they are under. Successfully processed episodes will say Processing Succeeded in the history.​

Sickbeard:​

To add a show click add shows on the top left, you can select from shows already on your PC or adding a new show. Once selected search for the show and select the correct one, the next page lets you select where you want sickbeard to download the show to (If it’s an existing show it will use the existing folder). The final page lets you select quality and what Sickbeard should do about missing episodes, setting these to wanted means Sickbeard will download all previous missing episodes.

For quality you can select one of the preset options or go custom, custom lets you be more specific about what qualities are downloaded. For example selecting the 720p option means Sickbeard will search for 720p HDTV, WEB-DL and Bluray rips. It will grab the best quality option where Bluray > WEB-DL > HDTV. If only HDTV rips are out it will grab that, but will prefer WEB and Bluray rips over HDTV if available. This applies for the 1080p option as well. For SD it goes DVD > SDTV.

Once the TV show has been added and Sickbeard has updated the shows airing and episode data as well as metadata we can use the management options:

waRZDUd.png


Here you can see what has been downloaded, what has been snatched but hasn’t finished downloading, what is wanted and what episodes are coming up. The search buttons on the right initiate a once search for the episode. This differs to a wanted state where SB will continuously search for the episode until it finds a suitable release. Use the tick boxes on the left to select then the dropdown box above to change the state.

EDIT: Lets you change quality options, the directory as well as pausing the show (SB won’t auto-download episodes anymore but you can still manually do it)
DELETE: Deletes the show from SB but not from your PC
RE-SCAN FILES: Scans your Harddrive for newly added or deleted episodes, will also re add deleted or missing metadata.
FORCE FULL UPDATE: Updates airing dates, episode names etc from the internet. Use this if SB hasn’t detected that a new episode has aired.
UPDATE SHOW IN XBMC: Sends a library update command to XBMC
PREVIEW RENAME: this is the built in SB renamer, its really good.​

Couchpotato​
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It’s so simple no explantion is needed.​

Few things to note:

The force priority option in SABNZBD for a download overrides any other commands, the download cannot be paused at force priority; it will also ignore any download limits or scheduling, so be careful.

Manually added downloads (those not from SB or CP) may need to have their categories changed manually in SAB on the downloads page so they are moved to the correct folder when finished.

If you can’t access one of the programs through the browser they may not be running for some reason, look for the process in the task manager, if it isn’t there go to the folder and run the .exe

If the program is running and you still can’t access it from the browser you might have the incorrect address bookmarked, running the exe will open the program in your browser with the correct address. Bookmark the correct address.

If you find that wanted movies or shows aren’t being snatched it could be that the quality you want is not available yet. It could also mean you need to add some more indexers for Sickbeard & Couchpotato to use.
 
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My movies are snatched by CP but neither uTorrent or SAbnzbd grabs it.
any ideas?
The correct download folder for the nzb and .tor is specified?
Win7 64
Already have Sickbeard, Sabnzb, and uTorrent working.
 
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What does the logs indicate (CP logs). Make sure you entered the correct sabnzbd api in the CP settings
 
RoMark said:
I did check the api.
Will see if I can find the logs and what they say.
Click to expand...
Post the logs

I must admit, CP is the most flimsy part of the automation process. It sometimes fails to find movies based on your criteria, yet when you do a manual search you find the movie :wtf:
 
These are the warnings and error message in red.
Not sure if you want me to post the complete log.



[ couchpotato.runner] <type 'exceptions.DeprecationWarning'> the md5 module is deprecated;
use hashlib instead C:\Users\Jupiter\AppData\Roaming\CouchPotato\application\CouchPotato-2.3.1.win32\libs\xmpp\auth.py line:26


Warning
Invalid cookie signature 'Y2RjZTk5YWY5MGU5NDVjYzhlMmFhMzk5MzQxYWRjNGM=|1391759779|5ed4cf1bb8ac4cadd04ff22124ee781ab1430cad'


WARNING [ couchpotato.runner] <type 'exceptions.DeprecationWarning'> the sha module is deprecated; use the hashlib module instead C:\Users\Jupiter\AppData\Roaming\CouchPotato\application\CouchPotato-2.3.1.win32\libs\xmpp\auth.py line:2402-07
15:59:44 WARNING [ couchpotato.runner] <type 'exceptions.DeprecationWarning'> the md5 module is deprecated; use hashlib instead C:\Users\Jupiter\AppData\Roaming\CouchPotato\application\CouchPotato-2.3.1.win32\libs\xmpp\auth.py line:26


RED Errors

ERROR
[hpotato.core.plugins.base] Failed opening url in NzbIndex: https://www.nzbindex.com/rss/?q="xx...&minsize=600&rating=1&max=250&age=1500&more=1
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Users\Jupiter\AppData\Roaming\CouchPotato\application\CouchPotato-2.3.1.win32\couchpotato\core\plugins\base.py", line 183, in urlopen
HTTPError: HTTP Error 503: Service Temporarily Unavailable

ERROR [hpotato.core.plugins.base] Failed opening url in NzbIndex: https://www.nzbindex.com/rss/?q="xx...&minsize=600&rating=1&max=250&age=1500&more=1 Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Users\Jupiter\AppData\Roaming\CouchPotato\application\CouchPotato-2.3.1.win32\couchpotato\core\plugins\base.py", line 183, in urlopen
HTTPError: HTTP Error 503: Service Temporarily Unavailable
Click to expand...
 
YingYang said:
Post the logs

I must admit, CP is the most flimsy part of the automation process. It sometimes fails to find movies based on your criteria, yet when you do a manual search you find the movie :wtf:
Click to expand...
It does find what I'm looking for.
The .tor or nzb file is in a folder on my pc, but neither uTorrent or Sabnzbd automatically grabs it? I must do a manual load?
 
RoMark said:
These are the warnings and error message in red.
Not sure if you want me to post the complete log.
Click to expand...

There is nothing in this log which would help diagnose the problem. You will have to try and get CP to snatch a movie and then post the log. The current error shown there is telling you it cannot access one of the index sites. Which index sites do you have set up in CP?
 
RoMark said:
I did check the api.
Will see if I can find the logs and what they say.
Click to expand...

Two quick suggestions:

Do you have https enabled in sabnzbd?
Have you tried to generate a new API and use the new key?
 
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