[vadfa]

So when h266 or whatever comes out you can't watch video anymore because your cpu can't decode it in software even if it tried?

[lvh]

An FPGA can be reprogrammed, and we do really do this for standards with better longevity than video standards (e.g. cryptographic ones like AES and SHA). For standards like video codecs, we just use GPUs instead, which I assume is what OP had in mind for "specialized hardware" (specialization can still be pretty general :-)).

[plorkyeran]

Hardware video decoding is done by a single-purpose chip on the graphics card (or dedicated hardware inside the GPU), not via software running on the GPU. Adding support for a new video codec requires buying a new video card which supports that codec.

[imtringued]

SystemC bloat will require you to upgrade to a bigger FPGA!