The unit I got didn't come with any software, only a small sheet of paper that explained where I could download the drivers, and how to setup the Control Panel. There is another review of this unit by San Francisco Final Cutters listed on the Contour site which gets into some details about OS requirements, but with 9.1 on a G4 500, I had no problems at all getting started.

At first glance the Control Panel (called Contour ShuttlePro) seems fairly complicated:

Lets go through the sections one by one:

Target Application
This menu allows you to assign different sets of actions to different Applications. There is also a Global setting that works in any unassigned Application. The control panel automatically changes the functions when you are in a specific program. What this means is that When you are in Final Cut Pro, you don't have to come back to the Control Panel and choose Final Cut Pro. It does it for you. Global is selected automatically when you are in any program that isn't in your list. The preset Applications are Final Cut Pro, iMovie, and Adobe Premier® 5.1


User Action
This menu lists every button or movement that the ShuttlePro™ can make. This includes things like Turn Jog Left or Turn Jog Right, Every movement possible by the Shuttle wheel (including what it does when you let go of the wheel), and all 13 buttons. Once you choose an item from this list, you must choose a computer response from the next list.


Computer Response
This list contains things like Do Nothing, Type A Keystroke, Scroll Up, Scroll Down, Press Modifier Key, and even Open File or Folder. This is a pretty customizable menu, but for the most part you'll find that most things you want to do use a Keystroke.


Keystroke/Press Modifier Key/
Item To Open/Scroll Amount
This menu changes depending on what you have chosen from the Computer Response menu.

Keystroke:
This allows you to set the keystroke that a particular button (chosen from the User Action list) envokes. You can't clear this menu back to "None" without first choosing "Do Nothing" from the Computer Response menu and then choosing Type a Keystroke again.

Press Modifier Key:
This option lists 5 modifier keys that you can have the button envoke.

Item To Open:
This gives you a button allowing you to select a file or folder, if you have chosen Open File or Folder from the Computer Response list. Scroll Amount:
This menu shows up when you choose one of the Scrolling options from the Computer Response list.

Comment
This is a very important box. It tells you what the action is actually called. The benefit of this is that in something like Final Cut Pro, clicking the up arrow key causes the cursor to jump to the beginning of the next clip on the timeline. If I set this up in the ShuttlePro™ control Panel but can't remember what it does, things will get very confusing. So if you click on this box and type the name of the action, say, "Next Clip" or "Clip Head" you will always no what that particular button is set to do when you go to the Control Panel.


MY TAKE
When I first saw this Control Panel I was confused because it shows a picture of the unit. I assumed that if click on a button in the picture it would bring up a pop-up menu letting me choose what I wanted that button to do. While it doesn't work this way, I can understand why. There are too many items that you must set for each button to just make a pop-up. It is intuitive enough that when you push a button on the unit that button gets selected in the User Action list, so you don't have to figure out which button is which just from the list. Pretty cool. I do think, though, that when you click on one of the buttons on the unit, that button should light up in the image in the Control Panel. This would leave no doubt which button you are working with. Maybe they'll add this in the next version...

NEXT: Using the ShuttlePro™ in Final Cut Pro