Does converted MTS 24p footage also require "pulldown" process?

Check converted clip settings in fcp. If they're 23.98 (or something there abouts), you're fine. If they're 29.97, you'll need to remove pulldown.

if you initially convert the mts footage to an all i-frame format prores rather than hdv, I don't think you'll lose any quality when removing pulldown.

search is your friend, and wikipedia is an even better friend

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-frame

Scan the wikipedia article. It's not that complicated.

Prores formats are all i-frames which contain all the data for that frame while HDV is a combination of i-frames and frames where the data is just the difference between previous and or following frames. I think HDV has i-frames every 15 frames (not sure about that exact number). An all i-frame format will have larger file sizes but will put less demands on the computer while a format like hdv has smaller file sizes but requires the computer to calcuate the image for all frames that are not i-frames.

I've played around with it without anything jumping out at me that I can't do with compressor, cinematools, etc.

You're talking about removing pulldown? Certainly if you don't need to edit the material and you just need to remove pulldown, that'd be great if there's no quality hit. H264 is not a good editing format and it's NEVER a good idea to work with it in fcp. It will edit natively in Premiere and fcpX, but it's still not ideal.

yup, that's what I'm saying. do a search here for h264 and you'll uncover a whole lot of misery.

It may work for a while, but eventually, it will bite you big time.

Drives are relatively cheap nowadays. My first external drive was I think 3 gigs and it cost a few thousand dollars.

I think you're ok with all 3 formats as far as being fcp friendly. As long as you see them in the Easy Setup sequence settings, you're probably fine. There can be issues with mixing frame rates. If you need to do that, post back and we can discuss workflow. Personally, I try and match all my clips to one sequence setting. not completely necessary, but in the long run it makes life simpler.

you can usually drop 24p material into a 29.97 fps timeline without any issues EXCEPT that fcp does not add pulldown in the best way. If I remember correctly, fcp just repeats the 4th frame. This may or may not be objectionable when you view it. You can add pulldown with full flexibility in After Effects. I don't imagine it would be a big deal to do this after you've locked picture.

My mantra is 'TEST YOUR WORKFLOW" from soup to nuts (ingest to output in delivery format). I sometimes make DP's, producers, etc crazy, but better them than me.

And yeah, sometimes it is just simpler to shoot 29.97. But most importantly is what is your end use. i recently finished a doc that had to be output to a digital cinema package for academy award consideration. The specs demanded 24 fps (not 24p aka 23.976). My sources were all over the place. Landed up using compressor to change the frame rate of all material to 23.986 and then the post house doing the dcp output conformed to 24.

you should convert your 30p footage to 24p using compressor. You'll need to customize the appropriate preset by changing the frame rate in the video settings in the encoder tab and then setting the appropriate settings in the frame control panel. Be sure and set the retiming quality to best.

If you can live with your 30p material slowed down, you can simply "conform" to 24p in cinematools without any loss in quality.