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Review
Installation & Documentation
Ease of use
Value for money
Price approx.	$240 + GST
Operating System	Mac OS 8.6 - Mac OS X
Available from	MacSense

There may be some of you who own video machines or video remotes with a dial-like control on it to fast forward or to rewind, while others of you, used to editing video in the more traditional way (via video editing machines) will no doubt be very comfortable with the Shuttle Pro and terms like 'Jog Shuttle' and 'Scrubbing'.

The Contour Shuttle Pro is a device that brings a lot of that functionality not only to your video editing software, but to any other program you might like to use it on. Most importantly, it's aimed at video editors who enjoy still enjoy the more tactile approach to editing video.

Out of the box
The shuttle itself comprises a central dial that's made up of two parts, the inner dial that you can spin with a finger to advance and reverse the film you are viewing frame-by-frame, fast or slow, plus a spring-loaded outer ring you use for more robust forwarding or reversing through film - this is ideal for audio and video 'scrubbing'.

Behind the central dial lies four buttons that you would most likely access with your thumb. Forward of the dial, there are another nine buttons making a total of 13, all of which are programmable and can be assigned task for each application, such as cutting and pasting. Although the Shuttle Pro looks mouse-shaped and fits comfortably into your palm-down hand, it is not intended to be used as a mouse and remains fixed on your desktop rather than you moving it around.

Shuttle Pro comes with preinstalled settings for some applications, but you can easily create more

Installation
Set up was exceedingly easy. Download the latest drivers from the Contour web site, plug the Shuttle Pro into a USB port, install the software and restart. Opening the application for the shuttle provides you with a lot of pre-installed settings for applications, such as Final Cut Pro, iMovie, QuickTime Player, Maya, Flash MX and Internet Explorer. It works with Mac operating systems 8.6 and up, including OS X.

My first reaction to the shuttle was that I didn't want to like it. Here I was, approaching multimedia development from someone with a computing background, rather than someone coming from a more traditional based editing background, where jog-shuttle was a natural thing. I wanted to stick with my mouse and keyboard shortcuts. But come on, after playing with the shuttle for a while, how long was that going to last?

My life: easier
My first attempt at using the shuttle was with iMovie and I found it blended in to the application well. Moving through the film was easy; the hardest part was learning all the key combinations and features for the various programs you can use the shuttle with.

There's tremendous variety as to what each button can do

This is the kind or item you would purchase if you were to use it regularly. You can easily switch from one program to the next with it, but you'll need to learn the programmed buttons off by heart if it was to be become truly useful. The fact that it can be programmed and used with virtually any application is just superb; you quickly come up with other applications it may be of use with.

One of the most enjoyable parts was using the shuttle with Internet Explorer, as it made browsing and scrolling easier. I also programmed it to access the Finder and with a bit of time, you might find it could replace some of the keyboard shortcuts you use on a regular basis, although I did find that the shuttle was slightly unresponsive at times, almost as though it had to complete one task before it would respond to your actions from others.

Overall, I had concerns over the responsiveness of the Shuttle Pro (this may be addressed in a software update), but tried-and-true video editors should find it a welcome addition to their digital editing suite.

© Parkside Media 2003
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