| Video to | Video to | Video to | Video to | |
| Frame Buffers | Virtual Memory | Disk File | Image Files | |
| CPU Usage | 0/5 | 1/5 | 1/5 | 3/5, (2) |
| 5/5 w. | ||||
| compression | ||||
| Disk | 0/5 | 0/5 at start, | 2/5 | 3/5 |
| Bandwidth | 2/5 as memory | |||
| Usage | used & paged | |||
| Frame | Per number | Temporary | Temporary | Temporary |
| buffer | of captured | queue for | queue for | queue for |
| memory | images | ¼+ sec. | ½+ sec. | ½+ sec. |
| required | of video (3) | of video (3) | of video (3) | |
| Preallocate | Yes, computer | No | No | No |
| storage for | memory (1) | (optionally, | ||
| images | disk space) | |||
| (4) | ||||
| Must | Yes | Yes | Optional | No |
| save | re-save of | |||
| after | raw data | |||
| capture | ||||
| Dependent | No | After | Yes | Yes |
| on disk | computer | |||
| bandwidth | memory | |||
| consumed | ||||
| Maximum | Per | Per O.S. | Per | Per |
| capture | computer | swap/page | disk | disk |
| length | memory (1) | file space | space | space |
| space | ||||
| Supports | Yes | Dependent | Dependent | Dependent |
| largest | (assuming | on CPU | on CPU | on CPU |
| & fastest | live capture | and/or disk | and disk | and disk |
| video | supported) | bandwidth | bandwidth | bandwidth |
| Supports | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes w. single |
| Continuous | image per file | |||
| (Ring) | No w. multiple | |||
| Capture | images per file | |||
| Post-adjust | Yes (5) | Yes (5) | Yes (5) | No |
| Bayer/RGB | ||||
| Contrast, | ||||
| Flat Field | ||||
| Software | -Plus | -Plus | -Plus | -Plus |
| -Std | -Std | -Std | -Std | |
| -Ltd 8GiB max | -Ltd 4GiB max | -Ltd | ||
| -Lite 256MiB max | -Lite 1GiB max | -Lite (w. one | ||
| TIFF per image) | ||||
| Multi-CPU/ | N/A | N/A | N/A | -Plus |
| thread/core | -Std | |||
| data | ||||
| compression | ||||
| FTP video | No | No | No | -Plus |
| off-site | -Std | |||
| -Ltd | ||||
| HTTP access | No | No | No | -Plus |
| to video | -Std | |||
| -Ltd |
Note: The CPU Usage and Disk Bandwidth Usage values, do not represent actual measurements or specifications, but are intended only to suggest the relative differences, on a scale of 0 through 5, among the various capture methods.
Note (1): For Video to Frame Buffers, a PIXCI® frame grabber capturing directly into computer memory is assumed, rather than a frame grabber with on-board frame buffer memory.
Note (2): For Video to Image Files, CPU Usage depends on several interrelated, variables. Such as the compression method used (if any), image file format selected, image bit depth; whether post-capture image corrections are needed for bit packing, multi-tap corrections, per-pixel gain and offset corrections (e.g. for FFC/FPN/PRNU), contrast enhancements, Bayer to RGB conversion, white balance, color space corrections, etc.; and whether, in conjunction with JPEG/JFIF, TIFF, or BigTIFF file formats, use of multiple threads or CPU cores for coding and/or compression are available and selected.
Note (3): Required frame buffer queue size is dependent on video frame rate, CPU(s) speed and availability, disk I/O bandwidth and short-term variations to disk I/O bandwidth, and disk activity of other applications. (For hard disk drives (HDD) I/O bandwidth variations can be due to rotational latency; bad block, sector, or track replacement; recalibration; and/or fragmentation. Lower quality solid state drives (SSD) can also be afflicted with short-term variations of I/O bandwidth.)
Note (4): Pre-allocating disk space can improve disk I/O bandwidth during subsequent video capture.
Note (5): Raw pixel data from camera is captured and stored. Bayer to RGB conversion (including white balancing and color space correction), contrast enhancement (ACE), and/or per-pixel flat field corrections (FFC/FPN/PRNU) are applied as needed while viewing live images. They can be adjusted after capture, and images re-viewed, prior to saving images — without degradation of data due to repeated reprocessing and rounding (or worse effects in the case of contrast enhancement). (Availability of the underlying color space corrections, automatic contrast enhancement, and/or flat field correction features in various versions of software is described elsewhere.) For Bayer pixel values, the required memory space, or disk space and bandwidth, is one-third the space or bandwidth needed for RGB pixels.