What is the difference between pal and region free?

Answer 1

PAL and region coding are two different things.

PAL is a standard for encoding color signals and is the standard for Europe and other parts of the world. NTSC is a similar encoding standard and is used in North America as well as other regions. The two are not compatible so there is no guarantee that US content can be played on European equipment and vice versa.

Region codes are used in DVDs, Bluray discs and most game discs. The code identifies the origin of the disc and players will check the code to ensure that the player and the disc are from the same region. This is purely a commercial restriction to prevent discs from one region (North America for example) being distributed and used in other regions (like Europe).

A region free disc indicates that there is no region coed embedded into the disc and a region free player indicates that the player will ignore the region code on a disc and play the disc regardless of its origin. There are virtually no region free players available and although some players can be modified, this is likely to invalidate the warranty and in some cases, trying to modify it will simply stop the player operating at all.