A high efficiency light valve projection system.

A light valve (110,111,112) such as an active matrix LCD between crossed polarizers, utilizing, for instance individual transistors to control each "pixel area" of the LCD and storage elements to store video signal data for each pixel, with optically shielded "dead spaces" between pixels to eliminate electric field cross-talk and non-information-bearing light bleed-through, is illuminated with a bright independent light source (100,101,102) which creates a video image projected via specialized projection optics (140) onto an internal or external screen (150) without distortions, regardless of the angle of projection onto the screen. Use of heat sinks, IR reflective coatings, heat absorbing optics, optional fluid and a thermistor controlled pixel transistor bias voltage injection servo circuit stabilizes image performance maintaining accurate color and contrast levels as the LCD changes temperature. In one embodiment of the invention, use of a multi-color LCD with a stepped cavity, producing different thicknesses of LCD for the different wavelengths that pass through it, allows a linear correspondence between the wavelengths passing through the LCD to produce true black, high contrast and CRT-like color rendition. A dichroic mirror arrangement is used to overlap differently colored pixels in the projected image. Use of striped mirrors duplicate pixels, where necessary, eliminating spaces between pixels, creating a continuous image with no apparent stripes or dots. A special venetian-blind type of screen is also disclosed and methods for using the system to view three-dimensional video are also explained.