Final Fantasy X PAL?

Alright, bookmarked. It'll be bought as soon as my brother lends me his credit card. Thanks, this thread can basically be ignored now :D

I'd still like to know if there's a different Australian PAL version or not, but it's okay XD

Well, all I know is I don't have the black borders and the game runs just as fast as the American version that I've seen.

I'll take your word for it then. Alright, case closed :D

PAL doesn't run any more slowly than NTSC, nor does it inherently display in 16:9, causing black bars. There is no difference between Australia/NZ PAL and European PAL. PAL simply stipulates the signal frequency and type output by the console - PAL is a 50Hz signal; NTSC is a 60Hz signal.

If these bars are visible then you should be looking at the way the TV processes a PAL signal and possibly the A/V cable as well (not to mention the mod chip in the PS2).

It seems you've never seen a video game that's been badly adapted to the PAL format. PAL itself isn't the issue. Of course it's not slower than NTSC in itself. I never said anything about a 16:9 display either.

Back in the NES to PS1 time and even up to the PS2 time (with Dreamcast being a positive exception, bringing almost all of its games with a 60Hz mode) games for the PAL region had several problems. First, PAL has a higher vertical resolution, 625 lines instead of 525 for NTSC. Since most games are programmed in countries with NTSC norm the games have to be converted to PAL format. Sadly, it was the custom to just leave them in their standard resolution, leaving 100 scanlines blank, thus the black bars. You can read more about that and the speed issues here: PAL region - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Squaresoft has long been known as a developer that hardly makes any PAL specific alterations to its games, but the situation has improved greatly.

It definitely has nothing to do with the A/V cable or the way my TV handles PAL.