Still pretty damn pissed!

[OB1]

As far as resolution goes, PAL is better. The only problem is framerate, as PAL tvs display 25 frames per second rather than the 30 fps that NTSC TVs displays. And if you're sensitive to video and sound, you'll notice a slight speed-up whenever a 24 fps tv show or movie is played on a PAL tv because there's a 4% speed increase. NTSC tvs fix this problem with a process called "3:2 pulldown" which basically keeps the 24 fps movies in sync at the original running speed. But since the difference between 24 and 25 fps is so small they decided to leave it at that, so there is a slight speedup with PAL displays. And since PAL tv's only display 25 fps, no video game can run faster than 50 fps (that's fields per second, unless you have a digital tv or something).

I have a region-free DVD player that perfectly converts PAL to NTSC, so I get to watch all of my favorite Hong Kong movies that have been released by the incredible British company Hong Kong Legends. The movies look the exact same as any of my American DVDs because of the great PAL conversion, but I am missing a few lines of resolution because I'm watching them on an NTSC TV. I don't notice any difference from my NTSC DVDs since I'm used to that resolution, but if I were to watch these PAL discs on a PAL TV I would get a sharper picture.

As for why you get BBC in widescreen I have no idea. It shouldn't look like that. It must be some other problem.