[zzo38computer]

I had found that VLC does not play a MPEG-TS file very well (although it recognizes the file and plays it, it does not work very well); converting it to another format first, will cause it to play better, in my experience.

[duskwuff]

MPEG-TS files are just a pain to play in general. It was never intended as a file format for prerecorded video, and lacks some features (like seek indexes) which are required for reasonable playback.

In most circumstances, a MPEG-TS file can be remuxed (without reencoding) to a more reasonable container format like MP4, and it'll play better that way. In some cases, it'll even be a smaller file.