It really depends a great deal - in Europe TV's and DVD players tend to be far more versatile, with TV's usually accepting many more standards (PAL, NTSC, SECAM, 50Hz, 60Hz etc.). Sets in North America are usually far more crippled, and often only work at 60Hz NTSC.THe region code is just an arbitrary thing block to stop the DVD from playing in another country, but isn't also a different format (PAL instead of NTSC)? So even if you got around the region code you wouldn't physically be able to play it on a North American DVD player.