Firstly, thanks Nigel for the great PIC software, it rocks. I agree with you. Thats why i've tried to amplify the current using transistors. Please note: i'm using 5mm red LED's, each segment has around 35 LEDs. Thats 35 LEDs x 7 segments x 6 displays = 1470 LEDs.
To test the circuit I built it on a bread board with conventional 7 segment displays and it works fine, nice and bright with no flicker. When I add just one LED to the circuit its too dimm. i even tried removing the 330 ohm current limiting resistor, not much difference. Could it be that i'm biasing the transistors incorrectly. For test purposes, I'm using two BC547's on one LED . Its still not working though.