Transcoding anything >720p is painful.
I run ancient hardware for desktop/laptop >10yrs old apple stuff running linux. I consume media mainly via rpi4 or android.
What’s a minimum level system capable of trans-coding 4k video to x265 in at the very least real time? Is there a tiny trans-coding device out there somewhere?
Would a NUC do? How old or new to churn out 4k x265
Can I avoid hardware? Are cloud gpu’s a thing?
I investigated AV1 for a bit, which frankly does seem like the future because it can encode to significantly smaller file size vs. 264 and 265. I don’t have a hardware encoder for it (though they exist in the new Intel GPUs), and software encodes are relatively slow even on capable hardware (e.g. Ryzen 7000).
But it’s nor worth it at all. The detriments of lossy to lossy + the sheer cost of time (and electricity) to make the change are not worth it. 2TB SSDs are cheaper than 1TB was a year ago, and 8TB mechanical drives for slow storage are even cheaper still. And it isn’t showing any signs of getting more expensive, nor should it.