My Apex DVD player can handle both PAL and NTSC discs, and if (during setup) you’ve told it your TV is NTSC, it’ll play ANY disc back in NTSC format, converting if need be. A PAL disc borrowed from a friend played back fine on the Apex.
I’m pretty sure I’ve run the disc in my LiteOn as well, and it also was able to handle the PAL disc, producing a normal, viewable picture on my NTSC television.
From what I’ve picked up from other people on various forums, the key thing seems to be not if your DVD player can handle a disc that’s in PAL format, but rather if it can handle a disc coded for a different region.
If your player can accomodate the region coding of a foreign disc, there’s a very good chance it’ll also be able to play it even if it’s a different TV format.