There are actually many cheap DVD players that you can find at KMart and Walmart that are capable of playing PAL DVD's on a NTSC television...might I suggest you go to
www.nerd-out.com which is a small forum like this one where people discuss cheap brands of DVD players that you can hack to make region free, and many also support the PAL format...I once owned a Daewoo DVG-9000N which was capable of playing PAL DVD's properly resized to fit NTSC television screens...however, the machine wasn't very reliable and developed problems in about 6 months...