In an LCD, a backlight having red, green, and blue LEDs is controlled to generate monochromatic light (e,g., blue) during a portion of a cycle, such as an image frame cycle. During another portion of the cycle, all the LEDs are illuminated to create white light. The color filter in the LCD panel contains, for each white pixel, a first color (e.g., red) subpixel filter, a second color (e.g., green) subpixel filter, and a clear subpixel area for passing white light and the monochromatic. The liquid crystal layer shutters are controlled to pass from 0-100% of the light for their associated subpixels to create a color image. With proper control of the shutters, any desired color of each white pixel can be achieved during the cycle. By converting one color filter to a clear area, the transmission efficiency of the display is greatly increased.