To determine how long an oscilloscope will capture a signal when it is operated in single trigger mode is determined by taking the instrument’s memory depth and dividing it by the instrument’s sample rate. The memory depth can be changed within the instrument’s acquire menu and then the sample rate can be changed by adjusting the horizontal scaling. The table below lists the different memory depth and sample rate combinations that are possible on the MSO5000 series and lists the length of time the instrument is able of capturing with each possible combination.
Note that the length of time listed is in seconds and this is for one channel.
| Memory Depth (Points) | Deep Memory Options | ||||||||
| Sample Rate (Sa/Sec) | 1000 | 10000 | 100000 | 1000000 | 10000000 | 25000000 | 50000000 | 100000000 | 200000000 |
| 2000 | 0.5 | 5 | 50 | 500 | 5000 | 12500 | 25000 | 50000 | 100000 |
| 5000 | 0.2 | 2 | 20 | 200 | 2000 | 5000 | 10000 | 20000 | 40000 |
| 10000 | 0.1 | 1 | 10 | 100 | 1000 | 2500 | 5000 | 10000 | 20000 |
| 20000 | 0.05 | 0.5 | 5 | 50 | 500 | 1250 | 2500 | 5000 | 10000 |
| 50000 | 0.02 | 0.2 | 2 | 20 | 200 | 500 | 1000 | 2000 | 4000 |
| 100000 | 0.01 | 0.1 | 1 | 10 | 100 | 250 | 500 | 1000 | 2000 |
| 200000 | 0.005 | 0.05 | 0.5 | 5 | 50 | 125 | 250 | 500 | 1000 |
| 500000 | 0.002 | 0.02 | 0.2 | 2 | 20 | 50 | 100 | 200 | 400 |
| 1000000 | 0.001 | 0.01 | 0.1 | 1 | 10 | 25 | 50 | 100 | 200 |
| 2000000 | 0.0005 | 0.005 | 0.05 | 0.5 | 5 | 12.5 | 25 | 50 | 100 |
| 5000000 | 0.0002 | 0.002 | 0.02 | 0.2 | 2 | 5 | 10 | 20 | 10 |
| 10000000 | 0.0001 | 0.001 | 0.01 | 0.1 | 1 | 2.5 | 5 | 10 | 20 |
| 25000000 | 0.00004 | 0.0004 | 0.004 | 0.04 | 0.4 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 8 |
| 50000000 | 0.00002 | 0.0002 | 0.002 | 0.02 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| 100000000 | 0.00001 | 0.0001 | 0.001 | 0.01 | 0.1 | 0.25 | 0.5 | 1 | 2 |
| 200000000 | 0.000005 | 0.00005 | 0.0005 | 0.005 | 0.05 | 0.125 | 0.25 | 0.5 | 1 |
| 500000000 | 0.000002 | 0.00002 | 0.0002 | 0.002 | 0.02 | 0.05 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.4 |
| 1000000000 | 0.000001 | 0.00001 | 0.0001 | 0.001 | 0.01 | 0.025 | 0.05 | 0.1 | 0.2 |
| 2000000000 | 0.0000005 | 0.000005 | 0.00005 | 0.0005 | 0.005 | 0.0125 | 0.025 | 0.05 | 0.1 |
| 4000000000 | 0.00000025 | 0.0000025 | 0.000025 | 0.00025 | 0.0025 | 0.00625 | 0.0125 | 0.025 | 0.05 |
| 8000000000 | 0.000000125 | 0.00000125 | 0.0000125 | 0.000125 | 0.00125 | 0.003125 | 0.00625 | 0.0125 | 0.025 |