That's a bit misleading. I don't think PAL or NTSC or whatever broadcast format matters a whit to digital media as it did to tape (where the stuff used analogue format with minimum processing). Digital images and sound are in fairly-defined universally-fixed digital format and the difference is whether a playing device (namely DVD player) has the hardware/firmware to transform the digital media to an analogue signal to a format your TV or whatever viewing device you use requires as an input. That's why you can use VLC to play digital media from whatever source on a computer. As you noted, the cheap DVDs are made for all regions (often region-crippled, if at all, by changing software parameters), while the big brand-name DVD player manufacturers might really make DVD players for specific markets. I have some cheap DVDs that can switch between PAL and NTS output. Most annoyingly, the new cheap LG LDA730 DVD can't switch regions.