If possible, ask if they have a player that will play PAL. DVD players may not, but many game machines will. For DVD just change your TV format to NTSC. That will give you the correct options in create disc. It will change the resolution and frame rate. In HD, I believe, it will only change the frame rate. DVD should be 720 x 480 for USA.
Just make sure you change the TV format back when done. __________________________________
CORNBLOSSOM

Just adding to Jaime-Esque's remarks, it may depend on the make and model of DVD player used by your rellies in America. Some early entry-level models(basic players) may only handle the colour system for the country for which they're intended, for the USA and Canada, that's NTSC which is built around a 117 volt/60hz power supply but our country uses the German-developed PAL system, built around a 240-250 volt/50hz power supply, and it's the frequency of the power supply, not the voltage, which determines the frame-rate. 60hz + 30 frames per second; 50hz = 25 frames per second. But better model DVD players have a compatibility feature in them which allows them to play videos in other colour systems. Many TV sets will have the same compatibility built in. This compatibility goes back to VHS tape-based VCRs that had a provision to play NTSC 4.43 or 3.38(one of which is a Japanese derivative) tapes through PAL TV sets, and I'm almost certain America had VHS decks that could play PAL tapes through NTSC TV sets. So it all comes back to the DVD player and its capabilities. The one element you certainly DO NOT have to worry about is "what region?" Commercial DVDs have a region code embedded which means that even if the colour system matches, that region code will trip you up if you tried to play an American import commercially-made feature film DVD on your Australian player. The USA and Canada are "Region 1", we are in "Region 4". This system(an unnecessary extra complication) was added to big companies like Time/Warner, Paramount, Universal, Columbia/Tri-Star and others could control the markets for their product more closely. Thank goodness we humble little "Cecil B. DeMille" wannabes can produce a disc that will play anywhere, provided the player is compatible.

OK guys, that's really good. So I have:

1. In produce, I've chosen MPeg2 with the NTSC profile - 720x480/60i.
2. From what you say, I'm expecting it to be able to be present the right options in Create Disc.

Jaime-esque -is this what you mean by changing the tv format? I will remember to change it back to pal when finishe

One more question, silly as it seems....what kind of file do I need to produce for USA if I want to send it over on a usb thumb drive? Do I need to choose NTSC again? or could I just send them my produced PAL file? (dumb question sorry.) Jenny

That is what I meant. As for the thumb drive, that depends a lot on the player. If it is for Computer PAL is fine. If it is a TV with a USB port, I don't know that answer. If it is a DVD player with USB, I would do it just like the DVD, but copy to thumb drive instead of disc. Hopefully someone here can give more details. __________________________________
CORNBLOSSOM

If by "thumb drive" do you mean those little "flash" drives, that are of values up to 32 gigabytes, but are usually bought in popular capacities of 8 or 16 gigabytes, you can save an MPEG-2 video file in either PAL or NTSC to one of these devices, it's just a matter of copy+paste(ctrl+c for copy) from where you've stored the file on your hard-drive, then (ctrl+v for paste) to the "thumb" or "flash" drive plugged into a USB port on your computer, then pack it and send it! It's likely the better method as it avoids DVD player compatibility problems. Modern digital-tuner TVs can handle video content in NTSC and PAL anyway. And they generally have USB ports on them to play video as well.
Cheers!