My confusion stems from the fact that VideoCDs are basically just a way to get mpeg-1 standard videos to play on your TV. If I understand it, DVD is essentially mpeg-2.
SuperVCD is supposed to be similar, in that the content is the same (ie mpeg-2), but the organization of the disk is different from DVDs (primarily because of the difference in capacity of the disks). I haven't successfully created an SVCD yet, but it's a goal of mine.
Since neither of these formats care AFAICT whether they're NTSC or PAL, it would follow that NTSC or PAL on the DVD player refers to output, not source. It would be interesting to see if your PAL DVDs were clearer if the player and box were set to PAL. Maybe you should take a trip down to Future Shop and report back!
