Embodiments described herein provide various examples of displaying video images of a surgical video captured at a first resolution on a screen of a surgical system having a second resolution lower than the first resolution. In one aspect, a process begins by receiving the surgical video and selecting a first portion of the video images having the same or substantially the same resolution as the second resolution. The process subsequently displays the first portion of the video images on the screen. While displaying the first portion of the video images, the process monitors a second portion of the video images not being displayed on the screen for a set of predetermined events, wherein the second portion is not visible to the user. When a predetermined event in the set of predetermined events is detected in the second portion, the process generates an alert to notify the user.
