Thursday, November 4, 2010

SickBeard and Newzbin - Example Setup

I know a lot of people use SABNzb for their Usenet/NZB needs, but a lot of people also use Newsbin.  SickBeard has an official thread over at SAB forums, but Newsbin doesn't really get as much love.


Here is a example setup of SickBeard and Newsbin.  A how-to if you will...this is really super easy, but very effective, and includes a significant amount of automation for "set it and forget it".
  • Set Sickbeard to fetch NZBs automatically, but save them to a destination...like "C:\NZBHole"
SickBeard Configuration "NZB Black Hole" and destination folder
  • Set Newsbin to auto-load NZBs on open, and provide the folder location  (NZBHole, see below graphic)
  • Set Newsbin to save your NZB downloads to "master folder" and then have each NZB auto-create it's own sub-folder
  • Autoload NZB Path is where you set NZBHole - same as SickBeard NZB Black Hole folder
  • Set SickBeard to Post-Process your downloads by providing the Newsbin download directory and activating "Rename" and "Scan & Process"
    TV Download Dir is your Newsbin Download Directory
    So now anytime you open Newsbin, it'll auto-load the NZBs that SickBeard has already retrieved for you.  So you can be fetching your TV and what-have-you hassle-free.  Some people might prefer this type of method to the SickBeard + SAB automation, because it's more of a manual-alright-time-to-download, instead of a this-just-runs-in-the-background.

    Basically, as SickBeard runs in the background it fetches the NZB's of your favorite TV shows.  It will save them to the "C:\NZBHole" or whatever you setup.  When you open Newsbin, it will auto-read from that directory and begin download.  In other words, as soon as you open Newsbin, it starts downloading what SickBeard fetched.

    Once it's downloaded and saved into your "Newsbin download folder", SickBeard will actively scan that folder, find the TV shows that were downloaded and do some cool stuff with them:
    • It will move them to your destination directory (which is likely different than your "Newsbin download folder").  Even if this is another computer on the network (as it is with my setup).
    • As the file is moved, it will be renamed, cleaned up, and meta data will be added.  
    SickBeard MetaData Configuration
    So what you have at the end is basically a free PVR working for you to automatically build your home library of TV.

    Cut that cable cord!  (note:  big cable companies do not want you to do this, so get while the getting is good!)

    Questions/Comments/Success Stories - let me hear about them in the comments or shoot me a message.  As always, if help is needed, I'll do my best.  Hopefully everything here is self-explanatory!

    *note, I'll come back to this post and add some screenshots of setup to help folks (UPDATED!)

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