526X Streaming performance

Yes, using the GPU would be a good idea.   Don't some NAS's out there have that ability currantly?  That is one direction to go.  That's bascially what a GPU does.  ARM processors are getting more and more powerfull every year also.  At some point good enough to do 1080P transcoding.  Not transcoding down to 480P.  

For me, transcoding is very important.  Most everything I'm streaming is getting transcoded.  I have friends streaming my content at their own house, and so I have to reduce quality down to 720P at 3Mbps speeds because of my Limited Upload bandwith of around 6Mbps or so.  Even though my Download bandwidth is around 100Mbps.  It still looks great for them and besides, it would be dumb to complain!!! Not with access to over 700 movies, most in HD quality.  

If my NAS wasn't fast enough like it used to be with the older ReadyNAS I had, I'd be using my Windows PC once again to run PLEX on.  It's rare when something is actually Direct playing for me.  Even right now, a friend is watching one of my movies at her home.  PLEX is showing Transcoing, with Video Transcode (h264) and Audio Transcode (aac).  A 1080P Video with 3 audio tracks, TrueHD 7.1, AC3 5.1 and AC3 Sterio.    Transcoding is top priority for me.  I do have to have limits of who connects because the NAS Intel processor can only handle so much.  I still want to be able to watch my own content without hickups.

4K is a big jump in fize size and transcoding needs.  I still don't see much point in it unless you have a 100" plus screen or sit almost point blank in front of the screen.  I'm not worrying about it anytime soon.  But it's  good to know what a NAS can do.