How much CPU power is enough for transcoding 1080p on-the-fly????

[SLPopp]

I know this is going to vary depending on the source format and the capabilites of the device doing the playback, but how much CPU power is needed to trancode an 1080p HD video on-the-fly from a camcorder (like a Canon Vixia HFS10) to a Sony Blu-ray player (such as a BDP-S370 or BDP-S590 - I have both of these).

Mezzmo is transcoding the video on-the-fly for both of these players. The BDP-S370 I can understand the need to transcode, but not the BDP-S590. If I use the Sony BDP (2012 Models) (can't remember the exact profile name) Mezzmo trancodes the file for playback, if I use the Sony Bravia KDL (2012 Models) it plays the file native.

OH... WAIT............ I just remembered, the files are not the original recordings from the camcorder - they were re-renderd under a different format in Sony Vegas Pro 10 (I'll have to check on the container and formats that were used), but the files are still not a Blu-ray rip- only video shot from a camcorder. But it still brings up an interesting thing, my BDP-S590 seems to work better using the Sony Bravia KDL (2012 Models) profile than the Sony BDP (2012 Models) profile - seems the BDP profile may still need a little work.

Any way, back to the original question. How much CPU power is enough to transcode 1080p video on-the-fly? I put together a purpose-built computer just for running Mezzmo and it STILL doesn't seem to be enough

It has
Intel Core i7-3770 prosessor (quad core with hyper-threading - not K model so no overclocking)

Intel DZ77GA-70K motherboard (using on CPU graphics and onboard sound, again no overclocking on non-K processor)

16GB G-Skill Ripjaw X series ram running at 1600mhz (XMP profile 1 on motherboard)

Two 1TB and two 2TB - all Western Digital Caviar Black HDD's (OS and Mezzmo on one 1TB HDD, Mezzmo Transcode folder on the other 1TB HDD, media on the two 2TB HDD's)

Windows 7 Hone Premium.

Transcoding seems to top out at 22 to 26 fps, too slow for on-the-fly streaming.

How much power is enough?????

Also... there was talk about starting a thread with the sole purpose of discussing PC hardware setups being used and their real-world trancoding performance, did anyone ever start this??