Brain fart

All DVDs are region encoded. A "region free" DVD is actually encoded for region 0. This is what makes it "region free". i.e. There is no absence of region encoding on DVDs; all DVDs are region encoded. (Aside - IMHO, region encoding is Stupid.)

DVDs are also burned according to television standards. So a DVD will either be PAL or NTSC, or in rare cases SECAM. For the time being, there is no DVD that is universal - it will still be NTSC of PAL.

To solve all this, just get a multi-region player and don't worry about region codes or NTSC or PAL or SECAM.

On a computer, good chance it would work (if their computer plays DVDs). On a television? Less likely.

NTSC has 29.97 frames per second (about 60 fields per second), with 480 interleaved lines (often referred to as 480i); 525 including the stuff that's off the screen (525i).

PAL has 25 fps (50 fields per second) at 625i (576 visible).

Equipment which is purpose-built for either format (such as most televisions) won't be so happy with the other format. Other equipment which has more flexibility by nature (such as modern computers and monitors) would be more likely to work with either.

There are tonloads of multisystem multiregion players in Australia and Europe... actually most DVD players in UK (this is know for sure) are multiregion and multisystem (PAL and NTSC). Even in Canada.

Any player by Philips, Pioneer and Yamaha are multisystem (can play both PAL and NTSC and output the video either natively or convert to PAL or NTSC), with simple remote codes Philips, Yamaha and Pioneer players can be 'converted' into a multiregion player.

PS: in order to play DVD from around the world the DVD player has to be

1. Multi region (so it can play ALL regions)
2. Multi system (so it can output both NTSC and PAL)

BUT if your TV (like most North American TV) can only take NTSC, then addendum 2 will have to be changed to:

2. Multi system with PAL to NTSC conversion (so it can play both PAL and NTSC but output the video in NTSC so your TV will be able to play it properly)

note: most TVs outside North America are Multi System which mean they can playback PAL, NTSC and SECAM natively without conversion.