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Settings reference

This page documents every setting in NZB-DAV, grouped by the tab it appears on in Kodi's add-on settings (My add-ons → Video add-ons → NZB-DAV → Configure).

For each setting you'll find its label, its internal id (useful if you edit settings.xml directly), its default, and what it does. Actions — the buttons that run a test or open a dialog — are listed with each tab.

Defaults are chosen to be safe

You can run NZB-DAV by setting only the Connection tab. Everything else has a working default. The Advanced tab in particular should be changed only when you have a specific reason.

Connection

Your links to nzbdav, WebDAV, and your search providers.

nzbdav

Setting id Default Description
nzbdav URL nzbdav_url http://localhost:3000 Base URL of your nzbdav server (SABnzbd-compatible API).
API Key nzbdav_api_key (empty) nzbdav API key, from Settings → Usenet → API Key in nzbdav. Stored hidden.

Action: Test nzbdav Connection — verifies the URL and API key.

WebDAV

Setting id Default Description
WebDAV URL webdav_url http://localhost:8080 Base URL of the WebDAV server. Leave empty to reuse the nzbdav URL. Set a value only if WebDAV is on a separate address.
Username webdav_username (empty) WebDAV username, from Settings → WebDAV in nzbdav.
Password webdav_password (empty) WebDAV password. Stored hidden.

Action: Test WebDAV Connection — verifies WebDAV reachability and credentials.

NZBHydra2

Setting id Default Description
Enable NZBHydra2 nzbhydra_enabled false Use NZBHydra2 as a search provider.
NZBHydra2 URL hydra_url http://localhost:5076 Base URL of your NZBHydra2 instance.
API Key hydra_api_key (empty) NZBHydra2 API key. Stored hidden.

Action: Test NZBHydra Connection.

Prowlarr

Setting id Default Description
Enable Prowlarr prowlarr_enabled false Use Prowlarr as a search provider. Only Usenet results are kept.
Prowlarr URL prowlarr_host http://localhost:9696 Base URL of your Prowlarr instance.
Prowlarr API Key prowlarr_api_key (empty) Prowlarr API key. Stored hidden.
Prowlarr Indexer IDs (comma-separated) prowlarr_indexer_ids (empty) Indexer IDs to query. Required for Prowlarr search — a blank value returns no results.

Action: Test Prowlarr Connection — verifies URL, key, and indexer reachability.

TV search accuracy

Setting id Default Description
TMDB API key (optional, improves TV results via TVDB id) tmdb_api_key (empty) When set, NZB-DAV resolves a show's TVDB id and searches indexers by id for more accurate episode results. Stored hidden.

NZBGet

An alternative backend to nzbdav. When enabled, NZB-DAV downloads through NZBGet and plays from an SMB share. See NZBGet backend. The URL, username, password, category, and SMB fields appear only after you enable the backend.

Setting id Default Description
Use NZBGet instead of nzbdav for playback nzbget_enabled false Switch the entire download/playback path to NZBGet.
NZBGet URL nzbget_url http://localhost:6789 NZBGet control address.
NZBGet Username nzbget_username nzbget NZBGet control username.
NZBGet Password nzbget_password (empty) NZBGet control password. Stored hidden.
NZBGet Category nzbget_category (empty) Category to submit under; also used to locate the completed file.
SMB Completed Folder nzbget_smb_root (empty) SMB URL of NZBGet's completed-downloads base.

Actions: Test NZBGet Connection, Test SMB Share.

Indexers

Direct Newznab indexers, for when you don't run NZBHydra2 or Prowlarr. The indexer fields appear only after you enable direct indexers.

Setting id Default Description
Enable direct Newznab indexers direct_indexers_enabled false Master switch for direct indexers.

Popular indexers — each has an enable toggle, an API URL, and an API key. The URL defaults are the indexers' standard API endpoints:

Indexer Enable id URL id (default)
NZB.life / NZB.su direct_indexer_nzblife_enabled direct_indexer_nzblife_url (https://api.nzb.su/api)
NZBGeek direct_indexer_nzbgeek_enabled direct_indexer_nzbgeek_url (https://api.nzbgeek.info/api)
NZBFinder direct_indexer_nzbfinder_enabled direct_indexer_nzbfinder_url (https://nzbfinder.ws/api)
DrunkenSlug direct_indexer_drunkenslug_enabled direct_indexer_drunkenslug_url (https://drunkenslug.com/api)
NZBPlanet direct_indexer_nzbplanet_enabled direct_indexer_nzbplanet_url (https://api.nzbplanet.net/api)
DOGnzb direct_indexer_dognzb_enabled direct_indexer_dognzb_url (https://api.dognzb.cr/api)

Each also has an API-key field (direct_indexer_<name>_api_key, stored hidden).

Custom indexers 1–3 — for any Newznab indexer not listed above. Each has direct_indexer_customN_enabled, direct_indexer_customN_name, direct_indexer_customN_url, and direct_indexer_customN_api_key.

Actions: Manage Indexers (add from a 23-entry preset catalog or a custom URL; test, edit, enable/disable, delete), and Test Direct Indexers.

Player Installation

Actions only — no stored settings.

  • Install TMDBHelper Player — installs the NZB-DAV player file into TMDBHelper.
  • Install Player Other — installs the player file into another add-on that has a players folder.

See Set up TMDBHelper.

Quality Filters

Every toggle is a boolean, and all default to true (show everything). Turn off what you don't want. See Quality filtering for the fail-open behavior and the HDR/SDR exception.

Group Settings (id)
Resolution filter_2160p (2160p/4K), filter_1080p, filter_720p, filter_480p
HDR filter_hdr10, filter_hdr10plus, filter_dolby_vision, filter_hlg, filter_sdr
Audio filter_atmos, filter_truehd, filter_dtshd_ma, filter_dtsx, filter_ddplus (DD+/EAC3), filter_dd (DD/AC3), filter_aac
Video codec filter_hevc (x265/HEVC), filter_avc (x264/AVC), filter_av1, filter_vp9, filter_mpeg2
Language filter_english, filter_spanish, filter_french, filter_german, filter_italian, filter_portuguese, filter_dutch, filter_russian, filter_japanese, filter_korean, filter_chinese, filter_arabic, filter_hindi

Keyword Filters

Setting id Default Description
Preferred release groups filter_release_group (empty) Comma-separated groups to boost in Relevance ranking. Edited with Configure Preferred Groups. Not a filter.
Excluded release groups filter_exclude_release_group (empty) Comma-separated groups to remove. Edited with Configure Excluded Groups.
Min size (MB, 0=no limit) filter_min_size 0 Remove releases smaller than this. A size that can't be read counts as 0 MB.
Max size (MB, 0=no limit) filter_max_size 0 Remove releases larger than this. If max < min, the size filter is disabled.
Exclude keywords (comma-separated) filter_exclude_keywords (empty) Remove releases whose title contains any keyword.
Required keywords (comma-separated) filter_require_keywords (empty) Remove releases whose title lacks any keyword.

Actions: Configure Preferred Groups, Configure Excluded Groups — both open a multi-select of ~95 known release groups.

Sorting

Setting id Default Values
Sort by sort_order 0 (Relevance) 0 Relevance, 1 Size (largest first), 2 Size (smallest first), 3 Age (newest first), 4 Age (oldest first)
Max results max_results 25 Caps results per provider and truncates the filtered list.
Auto-select best match (skip result list) auto_select_best false Play the top-ranked result and skip the picker.

Advanced

These tune polling, caching, stream resilience, fallback streams, and the proxy.

Polling

Setting id Default Description
Poll interval (seconds) poll_interval 1 Seconds between download-status checks. Clamped to 1–60.
Download timeout (seconds) download_timeout 3600 Give up if the download isn't ready within this time. Clamped to 60–86400.
NZB submit timeout (seconds) submit_timeout 300 Max wait for nzbdav to accept the NZB (it fetches and parses the NZB before replying). Clamped to 5–600.
Clear download queue when starting a new download clear_queue_on_submit 0 (Ask) 0 Ask, 1 Always clear, 2 Never. Excludes this title's own in-flight job, and never clears a completed copy you're about to reuse.

Search cache

Setting id Default Description
Cache duration (seconds, 0=disabled) cache_ttl 300 How long to cache search results. 0 disables the cache. Clamped to 0–86400. Stores raw pre-filter results, so filter/sort changes take effect immediately.

Stream resilience

These drive the background playback monitor.

Setting id Default Description
Auto-retry on stream failure stream_auto_retry true Retry a failed stream automatically.
Max retry attempts stream_max_retries 3 How many times to retry.
Retry delay (seconds) stream_retry_delay 5 Wait between retries.

Fallback streams

See Fallback streams.

Setting id Default Description
Enable fallback streams fallback_streams_enabled true Master switch for mid-playback source switching.
Maximum standby fallback streams fallback_streams_max 5 Backups kept ready per title. Hard ceiling 5.
Seconds into playback before submitting fallback backups fallback_submit_delay 120 Delay before backups are submitted. 0 submits immediately.

Proxy

See Playback and remux and How it works → Stream proxy.

Setting id Default Description
Convert MP4 subtitles to SRT proxy_convert_subs true Convert MP4 mov_text subtitles to SRT during remux so embedded subs survive.
Force ffmpeg remux above (MB, 0=off) force_remux_threshold_mb 15000 Size at which the chosen remux mode applies. 0 disables remux entirely (everything streams pass-through).
Large non-MP4 stream mode force_remux_mode 0 (Direct pass-through) 0 Direct pass-through (default, no ffmpeg), 1 fMP4 HLS (compatibility, experimental), 2 Matroska remux (compatibility).
Strict upstream contract mode strict_contract_mode 1 (Warn only) How to react when the upstream violates the strict Range/Content-Length contract: 0 Off, 1 Warn only, 2 Enforce. Off also disables the density breaker.
Enable density breaker density_breaker_enabled false Abort a stream when a rolling 16 MB window becomes more than 50% zero-fill (catches dead releases early). Only active when contract mode isn't Off.
Enable zero-fill budget zero_fill_budget_enabled true Cap total per-stream zero-fill; the stream ends with a clean error when the budget is hit.
Enable retry ladder before skip probe retry_ladder_enabled true Re-issue the original range request with backoff on transient upstream errors before skip-filling.
Max seconds to wait for a slow/stalled backend before giving up (0=off) passthrough_stall_wait 120 For an established stream that stalls on a recoverable backend condition, hold the connection open up to this budget. 0 closes immediately. Clamped to 0–600.
Read-ahead buffer size in MB (keeps filling while paused; 0=off) readahead_buffer_mb 256 Per-session forward read-ahead prefetch. Keeps filling while paused. 0 disables. Clamped to 0–4096.
Send 200 for no-range pass-through send_200_no_range false Send 200 OK instead of 206 Partial Content when Kodi requests a full object. Off until validated on your build.

Hidden settings

These aren't shown in the UI but exist in settings.xml:

Setting id Default Description
Content-root override webdav_content_root (empty → content) Power-user override for the nzbdav content-root path segment. Change only for a non-standard reverse-proxy mount.
(migration/UI-state flags) force_remux_mode_v2_migrated, cache_warning_shown, cache_dialog_dismissed false Internal state, not user-editable.