"I'm on a Macbook Pro with OSX v10.6.5 and film some mts. or m2ts. files with an HD sony camera. However, the Sony one isn't compatible to my macbook pro at all. I can't believe it... the "world's most advanced OS" has no way to play raw AVCHD files?"
"What are the exact procedures I need to do to import already existing mts files into iMovie`11, Quicktime or Final Cut Express?"
This is not an OS issue. AVCHD was created by Sony and Panasonic and isn`t designed to be played back raw, but decompressed into something like prores (used in final cut for editing before final rendering) or the intermediate codec. Sony only has a Windows based editor which supposedly lets you edit natively.
Sometimes, iMovie supports MTS for editing, but Quicktime and FCE/FCP does not, also iMovie does not render the video in full HD. If you want to play the MTS files natively, You will have to use a third-party media player to view these files, such as VLC; if you want to import MTS to these famous Apple application, you will have to convert MTS, M2TS, AVCHD, AVCHD Lite files to Macbook Pro supported formats: MOV, DV, MPEG-2, MP4 etc.
MTS to MacBook Pro converter allows your to convert MTS files to MOV, DV, MPEG-2, MP4, FLV, 3GP, M4V, MKV, SWF, RMVB, MPEG, AVI, WMV etc and manage to move the .MTS files into MacBook Pro, iMovie, iMovie`11, Final Cut Pro/Express, Quicktime, iTunes, Apple TV, iPod, iPad, iPhone etc all Apple application and device.
MTS to MacBook Pro software supports batch conversion, freely run on mac 10.4, tiger, leopard, 10.5.7, 10.5.8, sonw leopard and Suit to MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Unibody Macbook, Mac Pro, Mac Mini, MacBook, iMac and PC with Mac OS X.
Step1: Download, install and run "MTS to MacBook Pro converter" on your Mac.
Step2: Add MTS files, set output as MOV etc and save
Step3: Convert MTS video to MOV and import Converted MTS movie MacBook Pro.