So I got Sue the Mac mini and went to PC World to get a monitor. Well, I set up the monitor and couldn’t tilt it. So I convinced myself that this cheapo LCD monitor couldn’t be tilted. It’s hard to believe, I know, but there you have it. So Sue said, “Take it back” and I agreed and this morning I ordered a new monitor online instead.
That was harder than I thought it would be because LCD monitors these days are not what they claim to be half the time. Mark - thanks for pointing that out to me! The one I bought which couldn’t be tilted was in fact a 6-bits/color monitor, which means it uses dithering to approximate colors. The box says “16.2 Million colors” or “Up to 16.2 Million colors” and that’s misleading because 16.7 million colors at the same time is what we’re looking for in a true 8-bits/color monitor. The 6-bits/color ones really can only do 256k colors at once, which is a complete lie.
So I ordered the new one online, and returned the original one to PC World, where returning something is like begging for forgiveness. The guy had to get permission for me to return it and then when he came back he said, “Let me just see if the thing works.” I was wondering why? If it doesn’t I’ll return it. If it does, I am returning it anyway! But guess what? The damn thing does tilt! I saw him tilt it and I practically jumped over the counter into the back room where he was to see what the hell I had done wrong. Oh well, I had already bought a new one, there was nothing I could do about it.
Except when I got home I got some email from the online company saying my card was declined, so I didn’t actually buy the new monitor. Why was it declined? I mean, I checked my balance, paid my bill recently, and waited until it was credited to my credit card account before I bought the monitor. What could it be? So I called them up and asked them, and they said something along the lines of, “Because you’re card is pretty new, we wait until the next day before allowing you to …” I can’t even finish the sentence. What a load of crap. It was credited to my account. What does the next day have to do with anything!
Will you even read a blog entry without pictures?
Can you tell I am grumpy?
First rule of LCDs - just buy a Dell, dude!
Adam
Adam: The Dell 1907FP is definitely 6-bit. The 2007FP, 2007WFP and 2407WFP may be 8-bit; sure would be nice if they’d just publish the color depth explicitly.
The earlier 19″ models in the series (1905FP and earlier) were 8-bit, so I have some concerns about the other -7 models.
I’ll probably just play it safe and get an Apple display, since I’m not prepared to shell out the cash for an Eizo…