Turtle33, I recommend installing a media server on your laptop (or PC) and streaming it to your TV (through a USB cable). With a media server you can use the MKV or the MT2S file from the AVCHD.

If the MKV file is pausing it could be that the bitrate is too high. You can download a program called mkvtoolnix, open mkvtoolnix gui, drag the MKV file into it and deselect all the audio streams you don't need. It's up to you which ones to keep, but get rid of all the dubs you don't need and the commentary tracks and then any of the English ones you don't need (for example you could just keep the three DTS-HD tracks). Make sure you don't deslect the video or the chapters. Select the output filename and click on "start muxing".