Kdenlive 15.x, Kubuntu, and the Contour ShuttlePro

ShuttlePRO v2

Roughly one-and-a-half year ago I got myself a nifty ShuttlePro v2 for editing video. In the meantime, the video editor Kdenlive as well as the system platform (K)Ubuntu have both undergone a lot of updates and changes. In particular, Kdenlive has now moved to the recent KDE Framework 5 (KF5) platform (as of this writing). A recent disk hiccup allowed me to install my video & audio station from scratch. So how do I get my ShuttlePro v2 working again?

Update: added note about recent Kdenlive issue with ShuttlePro.

Update: added note about ShuttlePro not working with certain Kdenlive 15.04.x and 15.08.x versions.

Update: added note about fixing Kdenlive/Qt crashes when using the ShuttlePro.

Luckily, the old method of adding udev rules specifically for the ShuttlePRO v2 isn't required anymore. More so, as I then set the access rights to world readable&writable ... yes, that's bad. Albeit not so much for a jog dial, so the NSA can snoop how much I like to shuttle around my raw video footage. Whatever. In addition, there's no need anymore for creating a symbolic link.

(Re)Gaining Access to the ShuttlePro v2

The only thing to do on a (freshly installed) (K)Ubuntu is to add your user account to the input group. This is quickly done in a terminal; don't forget to replace user with your user name:

$ sudo usermod -a -G input user

You'll need to log out and in again in order to make the group change become effective. Afterwards, Kdenlive should automatically find your ShuttlePro v2 when you enter Kdenlive's settings and enable jog/shuttle devices. 

The above terminal command just adds you to the group input so you get access to input devices, such as the ShuttlePRO v2.

Happy shuttling...!

Kdenlive Issue

Unfortunately, some Kdenlive releases starting with 15.08 have a bug related to media controllers such as the ShuttlePRO v2: albeit you can configure actions for all keys, Kdenlive won't react to any button presses or shuttling/dialing. I've tracked down the bug in the source code and reported it back to the Kdenlive project. Hopefully, my fix will turn up soon with a next public release.

Update: Qt 5.4 (and probably later versions) cause Kdenlive to crash when using the ShuttlePro. Please see Shuttle Crash for an easy fix.

Update: Since Kdenlive 15.08.2 this bug has been fixed, so that buttons and jog/dial are working again.