When should I set the transcode to “always” or “never”?

It depends on your organization’s broadcast workflow. Transcoding rules can be set at both the org level and the user level. “Always” means everything that is uploaded will be transcoded to your profile. “Never” means the video will only be transcoded when manually triggered by a user.

1. If your org uses Connect only for CloudCast (i.e., not for broadcast), the transcode profile will typically be set to “always”.
2. If your org uses Connect for both broadcast and CloudCast, you will have more than one transcode profile available, and the default setting will typically be “never” for VOD, and “always” for the Machine user (so that the 1-click upload from the HyperCaster always creates VOD). Then you can further adjust the transcode settings at the user level. Go to Admin → Users → Edit User → Auto-Transcode tab. By default, these are set to defer to the organization’s auto-transcode settings, but you can change this to suit your workflow, for example:
   1. A contributor whose videos are only destined for Broadcast should be set to “always” for the broadcast profile and “never” for the VOD profile.
   2. A contributor whose videos are meant for CloudCast only could be set to “always” for the VOD profile and “never” for the broadcast profile.
   3. If everything is set to “never”, the admin has the ability to manually transcode any selected video to any of the available profiles.