

This is only really true if you have extreme throughput requirements, a regular VOD operation can get by fine on software encoding.
If you have the kind of throughput needs that warrant hardware encoders you’re going to want to go ASIC anyway, so regular server hardware won’t cut it. Like YouTube for example had to build their own ASICs because of the downright absurd scale they are running at





Most hardware is only really true if you account for older hardware in circulation, most new hardware will be shipping hardware decoder support for AV1.
On top of this, the software decoder support is remarkable for AV1,
libdav1dis a marvelous piece of software, bringing access to a plethora of devices lacking hardware decoder support.