Without the built-in light but a small outdoor light was on (above the camera).

The cinemode lowers the gain a lot so you get very low noise but you need one of the progressive modes so the picture won't be too dark.

I did a few more tests and found cinemode 60i in this low-light is too dark. Cinemode 30p is definitely better match with cinemode in very low-light

So is it safe to say to shoot evening in door family video in 30p is the best all around choice?

I would say so and preferably with cinemode to get more detail (lower contrast) and less gain (noise).

For low-light I always use now 30p with cinemode. Alternative is spotlight (darker and more contrast).

In the default full auto mode it would do that. See here comparison between default and different framerates/cinemode: zbaouw.bay.livefilestore.com/y1p20U7JNVxq5xQ2FH_au7RgiU4UybIsw6l1ogPmRKS4e-Vx92bXjttcPeTno79iwj405wWUtLIY0LLifRS0js22g

See more info on low-light in my review above in the link. Basically the 24p and 30p will give 1.5 and 1 stop advantage. The cinemode will give you good W/B and better dynamic range in low-light.

In the review link above you find more comparisons.

I found cinemode 30p in low-light best trade-off since motion is still fairly fluid and you get a 1 stop advantage (example: vimeo.com/942017).

The spotlight is an alternative with no gain (so slightly darker but more colorful without the cinemode).

Yeah I was too lazy to remove it. Fortunately tmpgenc Xpress now officially supports AVCHD and it has remove 2:3 pulldown.
However I don't think the choppyness would be completely gone. The only solution is to pan slower.

I use 30p instead therefore. Still decent low-light and better motion. It's only 0.5 stop slower than 24p.

PAL has 25p or 50i, NTSC has 24p, 30p and 60i.
This video is 24p (NTSC).