region 1 or pal, better picture?

PAL is a completely different TV system!
Japan (SECAM) has a third completely different system.
The are totally incompatible and MUST have a special converter to be able to play a movie in that system in the USA on a regular NTSC TV (USA format)
Seriously, read up on the different systems in the Wikipedia before throwing money away on a disc you cannot possibley play without spending thousands of dollars!!! on some equipment to view it.
(I remember of VHS type machines that converted PAL/NTSC but that was years ago...

Elizabeth, as I mentioned, my dvd player will play pal discs. I guess the real question is, will I lose picture quality when using the pal dvds. I have one pal and it does not look very good. I suspect its not the best disc so I wanted some opinion on how they compare overall.

I would like to correct Elizabeth about the different systems for TV. She stated that Japan uses SECAM, not true. Japan has the NTSC system just like the USA and Canada. Sorry Elizabeth. I really like your comments on Audigon, but in this case, you're wrong.

Whoops! Glad you caught that.
I am always wanting to know!!
Ahh Soundlock? does that mean Japanese non-regional discs will play here in the USA?
(What about the 50hz 60hz...)