When it is crucial to record every frame and the frame rate is high, a HSDR (High Speed Data Recorder) might be needed in order to minimize the frames lost.

The main cause of lost frames is that Microsoft Windows (or MacOS and Linux) are not real-time operating systems. This means that even though processes (such as FLIR ResearchIR) are given highest priority, they will be prevented from executing for short periods when the operating system are busy doing other tasks and this might cause a frame loss.

The severity of the frame loss due to system scheduling latency depends on several factors such as overall hardware performance, drivers for other hardware components, etc. At some frame rate and at some recording length, the internal memory buffer of the framegrabber will fill up so fast that FLIR ResearchIR may not be allowed to start moving data from the frame grabber until the buffer overflows, causing a frame loss.

If it is crucial to grab every single frame at higher frame rates or to record longer sequences without glitches or dropped frames, the only option is to use a HSDR (High Speed Data Recorder). If it is acceptable with recordings with a duration of 1–2 seconds max with a few dropped frames now and then, it *might* suffice with only a frame grabber. FLIR cannot guarantee that frames are not lost even at moderate speeds and recording lengths unless a HSDR is used.