It still confuses me I'm afraid Marc,

I was aware before that older PAL dvd players could be adjusted to handle NTSC and that newer ones could without adjustment. I had until recently assumed this was the same the other way round.

You say that region free is to do with playback and nothing to do with PAL or NTSC. Do you mean that the dvd it's self isn't region free but the newer PAL players are?

David.