I'm thinking this could be implemented with the future release of the XBox One app. Why?
First, the XBox One has ample grunt to do the transcoding given its latest hardware architecture.
Second, majority of the people choose Plex to run on a NAS. But most home cosumer NAS are incapable of transcoding except the enterprise grade ones.
I'm a big fan of Plex but I think the app can be a lot smarter. I think it should learn from some Android apps such as the Archos Video player, which I also use in my Android MINIX box. This can play anything and since my NAS can't transcode, it does the transcoding(software) on the client. Mind you, if it's dual core Cortex APU with 2GB RAM can, then XBox One Intel CPU is a lot more capable, no brainer!
If Archos can make an app for XBox One, then this will be a Plex killer.
If the problem is just the MKV container, then Plex can change that on the fly (Direct Stream). The overheads of doing that are very minor and even a NAS should be able to handle that.
I'm thinking this could be implemented with the future release of the XBox One app. Why?
First, the XBox One has ample grunt to do the transcoding given its latest hardware architecture.
Second, majority of the people choose Plex to run on a NAS. But most home cosumer NAS are incapable of transcoding except the enterprise grade ones.
I'm a big fan of Plex but I think the app can be a lot smarter. I think it should learn from some Android apps such as the Archos Video player, which I also use in my Android MINIX box. This can play anything and since my NAS can't transcode, it does the transcoding(software) on the client. Mind you, if it's dual core Cortex APU with 2GB RAM can, then XBox One Intel CPU is a lot more capable, no brainer!
I think you might be a little confused on how Archos and the xbox one plex app works. I have some knowledge on the Archos app as I use it as the main video player on my tablet and phone. The Archos app does not transcode anything. It natively decodes files through the use of its extensive codec support. There's actually a separate app in the play store to add additional codec support for Archos. This means it could play almost any file you give it as long as your hardware is fast enough to playback the file. With that said, the plex app for xbox one can only natively decode whatever codecs are supported by Microsoft. If the xbox one plex client can't natively decode the file then your plex server attempts to transcode the file to something the xbox one can play.
Unfortunately, this would be a limitation for any app installed on the xbox one (including Archos if they made an app on that platform). Microsoft would either have to add the additional codec support themselves or allow 3rd party developers to do it on their own which I doubt they would do.
If Microsoft would give developers access to all of the power of the xbox one I'm sure we would see incredible advancements, but up until now the sdk available is pretty terrible. They've done an outstanding job given their constraints.
