Well I finally did it and I have videos that my NAS will no longer play since it transcodes these and beats my CPU with extreme prejudice.
I only had 1080p videos before but now hit a 4k wall. The CPU on my NAS will run at 99% for about a minute before it errors out and Plex ask me to retry.
I would like to have an option it doesn't matter what the file properties are for resolution, file type, and device I would like to display it on. From looking around I have not found a NAS that could support this without a GPU on board. I currently run several Roku's but my main one is a Roku Ultra (model 4640x) for my home theater setup. I also have a couple of firesticks and all my portable devices (but being honest don't run any of them that much). This seems to limit me to building my own "NAS" plex server. I would prefer to stay away from windows on this but plan on sticking at least 8 hard drives so will be running my own RAID array internally. I am not sure what Linux has to offer and if I can secure it better than any other option. I do have a plex access account but think that would only help me if I went the GPU route.
I would love for this setup to be 8k capable but honestly doubt I would have any 8k media in the next 5 years. I would have to upgrade many items and it would be a significant investment from what I can tell with not a lot of gain.
Open to suggestions or links to research.