[Isaac Zachary]

I got really excited this year when the TCL NXTpaper was announced. It's a reflective LCD display tablet. In other words, there's no backlight nor light produced of any kind on it. It just reflects good old ambient light, great for reading, but also as it's an LCD and not an e-INK display it can also handle full color video just fine.

Anyhow, this got me thinking. Why can't we mod a TV to do the same? Another thing I'm into is old videogames and videogame modding. And ironically, I'm actually doing an opposite mod to an original Gameboy. I'm in the process of taking the reflective sheet from off the back of the LCD display and replacing it with an LED backlight. (For the record I'm actually going to try to make it both reflective and backlit by means of a transparent reflective material like used in one-way mirrors so there's an option for both.)

So if LCD displays can be modded from reflective to backlight, could we do the opposite with an LCD TV or Monitor? Better yet, leave it backlit, but remove the LEDs and repace the lighting source with solar light. Maybe we could take the back off, figure out how to put all the electronics in a box and wire it to the display, and then stick the display in a window. Add some blinds as brightness control and you have a solar powered TV.

I guess it all depends on how the LCD display is attached to the light diffuser. If it's glued on hard this mod may be impossible. But then again, maybe if the opaque backing of the diffuser is ground off, that might work. Then disconnect and remove (if possible) the LED's an add a mirror if you want a reflective display or put it in a window for a natural backlit light source.

One other problem I do see is if it's in direct sunlight it could overheat, and heat will mess with the picture quality.