Scryer vs. Bazarr
Bazarr is a companion app: it reads Sonarr and Radarr over their APIs, keeps its own copy of the library, and downloads subtitles into the same folders. Scryer handles subtitles inside the same process that imports the media.
Side By Side
Section titled “Side By Side”| Scryer | Bazarr | |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment | Part of Scryer | Separate container, database, and scheduler |
| Library knowledge | Already owns the files and their metadata | Polls Sonarr and Radarr, needs matching path mappings |
| Language policy | Configured per subtitle provider and per content type | Bazarr language profiles, mapped to *arr tags |
| Providers | Plugins: OpenSubtitles, Subdl, Jimaku, AnimeTosho, plus anime and Usenet sources | Large built-in list |
| Trigger | On import, then monitored by Scryer’s jobs | Bazarr’s own scan cadence |
| Sync | Enhanced subtitle sync plugin (beta) decoding the media’s audio directly | ffsubsync or alass as external tools |
| Speech to text | Whisper subtitle plugin | Whisper via an external ASR container |
| Users | Scryer permissions; subtitle settings need manageCatalogSettings | Bazarr’s own login |
What Changes In Practice
Section titled “What Changes In Practice”No second copy of your library. Bazarr’s most common failure is a path mismatch between its container and Sonarr’s. Scryer imports the file and fetches subtitles for the path it just wrote.
Providers are plugins. Install the providers you use from Settings → Plugins, then add an instance under Settings → Subtitles and pick which content types it serves. Provider status, last error, and cooldown are shown per instance.
Sync reads the audio, not a guess. The enhanced sync plugin decodes AC-3, E-AC-3, DTS, and TrueHD audio and aligns subtitles against detected speech. It is beta, so treat results as a strong default rather than a guarantee.
What Bazarr Still Does That Scryer Does Not
Section titled “What Bazarr Still Does That Scryer Does Not”- Bazarr’s provider catalog is longer. If a niche provider matters, check the plugin catalog first.
- Bazarr can serve subtitles for media Scryer does not manage. Scryer only handles titles in its own libraries.
Related
Section titled “Related”- Subtitle provider defines the concept.
- Plugins covers installing provider plugins.