The Aluminum Falcon said:

Oh wow. I live in the US. We sure get the bad end of the deal. Like most NTSC DVD players, my PS3 can only play NTSC. I really don't understand why it seems that a lot of PAL players can play NTSC but not much NTSC can play PAL. Maybe I need a UK PS3 now...

I believe the DVD Spec req PAL players to support NTSC, but not visa-versa.

You could say it was so Hollywood could release titles without the expense of Standards Conversion.

Certainly the original release of "Sex and the City" Season 1 and "An Evening With Kevin Smith" were Region 2 NTSC (same as Japan).

A similar thing has happened with Blu-ray - 50Hz playback is only mandatory in 50Hz territories, but 24p and 60Hz playback is available everywhere.

And yes, the US PS3 is just Sony being stupid.