Without monitor

So my monitor died.
I have a very good 21" widescreen LCD monitor, the HP f2105, rez of 1680*1050. All that broke was the power on/off button. Thankfully I have good warranty, the extended performance service plan through Best Buy. I paid nearly $800 for the LCD and plan back at the end of 05.

The thing is that Best Buy no longer carries this monitor, but thats cool since the performance plan promises to match and likely exceed in a replacement. I was really hoping to get a replacement LCD cause now most have HDCP, which mine does not.

However, I did my research on the current 21"-22" LCDs to be highly disappointed that every last one of them is merely a 6-bit panel, as opposed to 8-bit. Whats the big loss of 2 bits you might ask. Well, 6 bits for each subcolor results in a max of 256 000 colors, while 8 bits allows for 16.7 million colors. However, 6-bit monitors do use some advanced techniques, the simplest of which is dithering, to achieve closer to 16.2 million, but they are faking the 16.2 and its not near as good looking as true 8-bit color.

TN panel technology is what is limited to 6-bit colors, versus S-PVA (what my HP monitor is) which is almost always 8-bit. TN technology is also VERY weak at viewing angles, while S-PVA is extremely good.

After all that research I decided the only panel I would want from Best Buy would be their 27" Samsung 275T, which is an 8-bit S-PVA panel. It would be necessary to step up and pay a price difference to get it.

Low and behold, after all that research it turns out they are going to try and repair my monitor first. This is a problem because they take around 5 weeks, so I am without monitor for that period of time! (if they exceed 8 weeks they HAVE to replace it!)

Thats right, they would NOT give me a loaner monitor, even after I spoke to a manager about my disappointment about that.

Oh but at least my brother is using my old 19" Samsung CRT and since he never bought it off me I just took it back and now he has nothing to use :P