We reanalyse the UV/optical spectrum and optical broad-band data of the eclipsing binary HV 2274 in the LMC , and derive its distance following the method given by Guinan et al .
( 1998a , b ) of fitting theoretical spectra to the stars ’ UV/optical spectrum plus optical photometry .
We describe the method in detail , pointing out the various assumptions that have to be made ; moreover , we discuss the systematic effects of using different sets of model atmospheres and different sets of optical photometric data .
It turns out that different selections of the photometric data , the set of model atmospheres and the constraints on the value of the ratio of selective to total extinction in the V -band , result in a 25 % range in distances ( although some of these models have a large { \chi } ^ { 2 } ) .

For our best choice of these quantities the derived value for the reddening to HV 2274 is E ( B - V ) = 0.103 \pm 0.007 , and the de-reddened distance modulus is DM = 18.46 \pm 0.06 ; the DM to the center of the LMC is found to be 18.42 \pm 0.07 .
This is significantly larger than the DM of 18.30 \pm 0.07 derived by Guinan et al .
( 1998a ) .