A lot of monitors that support tilting but aren't easy to move just need a snap into place. It's scary doing it - but I've had new monitors that you need to snap up to get them to tilt - sounds like you break something when you do it but it's normally just that the monitors are fixed in place with dust and shmuck from the factory they were built in.
Regarding the grainy view, you could try playing with monitor settings, monitor calibration (win7) and resolutions, if you're still getting a grainy look then it might just be the difference from your old monitor.