Can't Play M2TS with VLC? Fix it here

Diana Joan

Jul 17, 2017 06:47 am / Posted by Diana Joan

M2TS is often from camcorder recording files and you can find it from AVCHD folder. For example, some camcorder models from Canon and Sony often use M2TS files. In addition, M2TS files are also present on Blu-ray disc compilations, therefore they are capable of storing quite a large amount of information and data tracks. Normally, people often choose to use VLC media player to play M2TS files.

It is easy to play M2TS files with VLC. Just click File and click the Open File option. Then, click the Browse button next to the first white line at the top of the window with title "Open.." and navigate through your harddrive for the M2TS file you wish to listen to and select it. After you have selected the file, click OK and VLC will start playing the M2TS video you chose. 

Although VLC can play M2TS files, there are many issues about "VLC Won't Play M2TS Videos" on the forum sites: "My computer will not play M2TS videos with any version of the VLC player"; "Im trying to play the m2ts file on VLC with subtitles and it wont play"; "VLC will not play .m2ts files Windows 8.1, I have tried google and this site and I can not find the answer"... When you meet the trouble in VLC not playing M2TS, how can you do? Here, we gathered 3 methods to solve it.

Method 1: Disable Subtitle Automatic Search in VLC

Method 2: Try VLC Video Player Alternative

Method 3: Convert M2TS to VLC More Compatible Video

Method 1: Disable Subtitle Automatic Search in VLC

If your M2TS video files has subtitle txt file or not? Are txt files of the same name (hobbit.m2ts and hobbit.txt) or other files that could be interpreted as subtitle files in the same directory with the m2ts files? If so, you can try to move the m2ts files in a new empty folder and try again playing. That was the reason in some cases that VLC stopped playing some of m2ts files - the txt files were log files from Handbrake.

You can disable the automatic search for subtitle files in VLC options. that solves the problem. You have to switch on "show all options" and the go to video->subtitles

Method 2: Try VLC Video Player Alternative

Sometimes, when you can't play M2TS files, you can try a VLC video player alternative. MPC-HC is the only media player I use in Win 8.1 and no trouble playing compliant m2ts files. Media Player Classic is a compact media player for 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows. MPC-HC does not require any special configuration, just download it and go. There are dozens of user-friendly options to choose like a wide range of A/V formats. What's more, Media Player Classic-Home Cinema is designed to play DVDs and Blu-Ray discs as well as your media files, but it can also directly access files from video-capture devices and other sources.

Supports dozens of formats—MPC-HC supports WAV, WMA, MP3, OGG, SND, AU, AIF, AIFC, AIFF, MIDI, MPEG, MPG, MP2, VOB, AC3, DTS, ASX, M3U, PLS, WAX, ASF, WM, WMA, M2TS, WMV, AVI, CDA, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, D2V, MP4, SWF, MOV, QT, along with GPU assisted decoding.

Method 3: Convert M2TS to VLC More Compatible Video

M2TS video content is typically high definition video content, but if ripped from a Blu-ray disc, playback might be quite tricky on VLC. Also, depending on the speed of your computer, playback might not be that good looking. Therefore, when your computer doesn't have a good graphics and better RAM for the M2TS files to be played or your M2TS is ripped from Blu-ray with AACS encryption, the best way to play M2TS with VLC will be to transcode M2TS to VLC more compatible MP4 or MKV video files with a video converter.

Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate is The Best VLC Assistant

Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate will be the best assitstant for VLC video player. It can convert AVCHD M2TS to H.264 MP4 with AAC audio and other VLC supported MKV, MOV, WMV formats for VLC video player playback. It can remove the encryption from your M2TS files if the file is from Blu-ray ripping. You can choose the subtitle track when converting video files then the software can hard burn the subtitle to video then VLC don't need to read M2TS video and the subtitle txt files. You also can add external subtitles to the video. VLC is a kind of CPU-taking video player. So when you play HD video, especially UHD videos with VLC, it will be stuttrring.

M2TS to VLC converter

How to Convert M2TS to MP4 for VLC?

Step 1. Add M2TS Files

You need to add M2TS files to the M2TS to VLC converter. You can directly drag and drop the M2TS video files to the program. Alternatively, you can go to "File" to import M2TS files you want to play on VLC. Batch conversion is supported here. If you need to convert M2TS to VLC on Mac, you should use iMedia Converter for Mac and you can learn more about it in this review.

import M2TS files

Step 2. Choose VLC playable format

Set right output format. Click "Format" bar, and select .mp4 from "Common video" or "HD video" to fit VLC player. You also can choose Common MP4 in "Common Video" catelog. Then, you can click "Settings" to configure video and audio bitrate, frame rate, resolution, codec and more settings to make the output video more compatible with VLC.

HD MP4

Step 3: Convert M2TS to VLC

After you have finished all the settings, go back to the main interface, press the red "Convert" button to start to convert M2TS to VLC video player.

When the conversion is completed, click "Open output folder", a window will pop out with all your converted files. Then you can add the converted M2TS files into VLC media folder to playback.


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