Was software encoding a fluke? Have we entered an era where only dedicated hardware

>>55427885
Hardware encoders aren't even close yet, even for mature formats like h264

>>55427916
You see I'm not talking about older standards. Rather newer ones that are more computationally taxing. So much that it seems software solutions for desktop users aren't enough for encoding.

>>55428028
That's because the software encoders ate still not optimized, they're in their infancy
Also, because CPU's have been stagnated for 5 years now

>>55428795
What makes you sure the stagnation won't continue? Up to H.264 era the progress was appropriate. Not anymore.