Looking for advice on how to convert camcorder video

I recently purchased a Samsung UN46B7100 with the intention of streaming camcorder video over a network from my home computer. Unfortunately, I have discovered that the TV/software does not play Canon .m2ts files.

I've tried renaming the file extension to .ts and I get picture but no sound.

Does anyone know of an easy way to convert over 100gb of videos to a format that my TV/software can recognize and play? A batch converter would be ideal. Something extremely easy to use would be a must - I don't have time or interest in tinkering alot with this project.

I don't mind paying for a commercial product that will do the job. But I don't know what will work, and what is a legit product w/o malware/etc.

Hello.

That was a a great idea. I was not familiar with those media players. You've given me a new direction to look into. As I do already keep an external hard drive backup copy of those camcorder videos, it is not a big deal to plug it into the media player when we want to view those particular videos.

I think you've saved me a ton of time messing with file conversions, and thank you very much.

Unfortunately that approach only would work with new videos. I've transferred most of them off of the camera flash cards. I previously fooled with transferring them back onto the cards and subsequently the software that the Canon camcorder uses would not recognize the videos anymore. Absolutely awful software they provided - it'll playback, and edit sorta, but the editing in particular is really clunky and hard to use.

I think the hardware approach is going to work best for me. I don't console game - I prefer to hook my PC up to the TV - so getting a PS3 would cost more than it's worth.