getting my head around shipping options

Is there someone out there who's across all the shipping modules? I've got a really hairy one here and I'm not sure which way to go.
The client is selling a DVD he has made, so there are two different formats, which I can do with attributes or just create two different products - not a problem as it's just one title.
Anyway, we're in Australia. The US distributor will be handling all sales in the NTSC format which is all North & Central America and most of South America, also Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Burma and US-influenced Pacific Islands. The client's happy to list a flat rate of US$5 for NTSC DVDs posted anywhere in the Americas and US$10 for anywhere else in the world. For the PAL version DVDs, he'd like a flat rate of A$6 for Australia and A$12 for international.
Every time I look at this my head starts spinning so any ideas are welcome...
TIA, Jen

The entire process of shipping within zencart is determined by the system knowing the geographical location of the purchaser's stated shipping address.

Shipping (regardless of what modules are used) is therefore a case of setting up Zones and Zone Definitions, and then configuring shipping modules to be offered to a purchaser when the system knows their shipping destination. Any particular module will then "come into play" when the conditions relating to its presence are met by the user stating a shipping destination. If a module is set up to NOT apply to a given Zone, it will simply be unavailable to all shoppers whose shipping requirements do not meet its automated selection criteria.

For example, if I set up a Zone, whose Zone Definitions are configured for USA states only, any shopper who indicates that the shipping address is NOT a USA state will not be offered that shipping method at checkout. I will have to have set up a DIFFERENT module to handle non-USA states.

Many shipping modules can be "cloned" - ie: copied... so that the FUNCTIONALITY of the module can be duplicated. In this way you can have things like several FLAT RATE shipping modules in play, where the one(s) that are appropriate for a given Zone are displayed, and those that are NOT applicable simply do not appear to the customer, when they specify their shipping destination.

Hey thanks schoolboy (again). I had forgotten about installing copies of modules, although I did it once before for some reason - will have to look back through other sites to see when and how.
But Flat Rate isn't going to do it for this situation as he wants to charge a certain amount for one item, and then a higher amount for 2-4 items etc. I'm now thinking (thinking aloud here) that maybe I can install two copies of Table Rate, one for the US-type zones as above and another for "rest of world". Then use number of items within each for the decider. I'm going to have to trust that customers select the correct format (NTSC vs Pal) but those that order the wrong one can be contacted via email re a variation in their order I guess (although they may have already paid the wrong amount via PayPal, hmmm ... maybe dump Paypal and just take offline payments to see how the system works initially).
The complication is, and I didn't mention this before, there's also another product, a CD which is cheaper to post. OK, so maybe use weight instead of number of items as the decider?
Thanks for letting me bounce this off you. Does this sound like it'll work? Jen

Just had another chat with the client. The NTSC version (for America etc) won't be available for a few months so that simplifies things for now. But I'll have to revisit this at that stage so any ideas in the meantime are very welcome. Jen