PAL and SECAM DVD:s are recorded in the same format, but I don't know if the same applies to video tapes. Kropla's list should only reflect actual broadcasts, not what people have in their videos. (Many PAL videos can play back NTSC tapes.)
Yes, PAL and SECAM are similar. The black and white part is the same, it's just the colour coding that differs. (NTSC is different in both aspects) They came the same year, but SECAM is inferior and was (therefore?) adopted by the communist block. In fact, the PAL colour coding is supposed to simply be an improved version of NTSC. They fixed the Newer-Twice-Same-Colour problem, but this made it more complex than NTSC. (Hence: Pay a lot)
PAL quality isn't that great. Not as much because of the format as of distortion during transmission and reception. Hooking it up to a DVD should do magic.
