Have a new HDTV? Make sure you set it up right to get the best possible HD viewing experience.

You like watching TV. You just bought a new HDTV, hooked it up, and just want to sink into your couch and enjoy that beautiful HD picture. That’s perfectly reasonable. You should be able to just press a few buttons and access hundreds of channels and watch them in high definition with total ease.

But unless you set things up correctly, that might not be easy to achieve. The wrong cables, picture modes, standard-definition channels, and even screen cleaner can negatively affect your high-def enjoyment. Fortunately, it only takes a few easy steps to get things right. Below are six of the most common HDTV viewing errors, and how you can fix them in a snap.

Not Using HD Connections We’ve seen this one too many times. Joe drops a grand on a new HDTV, takes it home, and sets it up only to find that the picture looks softer and less detailed than it did at the store. This isn’t because the set is defective, or Best Buy used black magic to optimize the picture to get him to buy it. Joe connected his set-top box to the television with a composite video connection, or he simply screwed the white coaxial cable from his set-top box right into the back of the TV.

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