A high transmittance continuum domain twisted-vertical alignment (CDTVA) liquid crystal display (LCD) without domain walls defect and complex fabrication process has been developed. The CDTVA mode has no optical schlieren pattern occurring in the TVA cell. The optimum conditions for liquid crystal phase retardation (Gamma) and cell gap-to-helical pitch ratio (d/p) were studied using three-dimensional finite element simulation, which showed good agreement with the experimental results. The results indicate that the maximum transmittance of the proposed CDTVA cell is similar to that of the twisted nematic mode thin-film-transistor LCD. Thus, CDTVA cell has potential applications for wide-viewing angle LCDs. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3516478]