Application and characterization of large-format IR focal-plane arrays as detectors for ultrafast, high-resolution IR spectroscopy are discussed. We also present generation of broadband IR probe-reference pulses by use of collinear non-phase-matched geometry and shot-to-shot dual-track normalization to obtain transient spectra from broadly absorbing hydrogen-bonded systems. As much as 400-cm(-1)-wide coverage with 15-cm(-1) FWHM spectral resolution and +/-6.4 x 10(-4)(DOD = 3 x 10(-4)) baseline standard deviation (+/-1sigmas) is demonstrated near 2.9 microm.