Transcode 1080p for Web Stream

Hi,
I was (again) playing around with transcoding a stream for the Mediabrowser.
I realized at one point that my NAS isn't good for doing this in real time for decent quality.

What kind of CPU should I have to transcode 1080p to mid Quality SD (maybe 480p / 1500 bitrate)

No-one ?

I just thought, would Intel Quicksync be supported, this would help. Any plans on this ?

[NX3]

Quicksync needs to be supported by ffmpeg for it to help. Spending a lot of money to transcode to low res real time feels like false economy. You'd have to buy something pretty powerful and you can get a media player capable of native playback much cheaper.

[NX3]

Ps most NAS won't have a cpu suitable, self build nas could as you spec everyone

I see what you mean, but how does the Intel Quicksync technology correlate with CPU Performance. I was under the assumption that you do not need a very powerful CPU to make use of it.

[NX3]

Several low end Intel cpu have quicksync, it's a hardware feature. So when you benchmark, unless its a video transcoding test specifically using quick sync it won't perform very well.

I was running Handbrake with quicksync and was able to get ~46 FPS. But this was my Desktop machine with a very high end CPU.

So I wonder if one of these low end CPU would perform as good as my one and I could use it in a NAS

[NX3]

Ive got a low end Intel J1900 based NAS (self build) which can transcode pretty well to about 720p as real time is but with QuickSync it would be much better. Hopefully ffmpeg will support it soon.

"Intel SMD (Streaming Media Drivers) are hardware audio/video decode/encode and other processing systems often seen on NAS machines, and QuickSync Video is a similar system seen on newer mainstream processors (starting with Sandy Bridge, expanded on Ivy Bridge, and available on almost all Haswells). These 2 systems (which have entirely separate SDKs) allow, in the best case, for the entire transcoding process to be performed on dedicated decoding and encoding hardware on-die with the CPU, which can create a huge speed advantage, especially if the CPU is already loaded (e.g. with another transcode, or some other program the user is running) or was weak to begin with"

I understood Handbrake is using ffmpeg as well. So the latest version should support it ?

I just learned that Windows Home Server is out of support in April 2016. I know it's some time till then, but this also means I wont buy a new kit then and go for a different solution.
Maybe one of the Synology Play NAS devices witch come with a dedicated Encoder unit for x264.