There are two main types of TV systems in use. PAL and NTSC.
The PAL Picture Standard
MPEG video is a standard for broadcasting and viewing on Digital TV. These standards, called as the picture standards, differ from country to country.
PAL (Phase Alternating Line) is a TV standard introduced in the early 1960?s in Europe. PAL is used in most of the western European countries (except France, where SECAM is used instead), Australia, some countries of Africa, some countries of South America and in some Asian countries.
The NTSC Picture Standard
NTSC (National Television System Committee) is a Color TV standard developed in the U.S. in 1953. United States, Canada, Japan, most of the American continent countries and various Asian countries follow NTSC standards. Rest of the world uses either some variety of PAL or SECAM standards.
A movie recorded to one standard will not work on the other standard. The frame rate for PAL is 25 fps, NTSC is 29.97 fps. The picture dimensions are different as well.
Your PC does not care and will play both. Your DVD player/television will not unless you have one designed to play both standards.
There are programs and hardware that let you convert.
Or you can get a cheap DVD player that plays both PAL and NTSC. the Coby 515 does this just fine ( I have 3 of them, 2 at home , one at my mom's). the CyberHome 300S works well too and its easy as hell to remove the region code from (at least it was when I did mine, CH might have updated the Firmware since so removing the regioncode might not be viable)
