What's the best Android app for playing video files stored on a network drive or NAS?

VLC for Android is a strong candidate for accessing media libraries stored on home servers or NAS devices. The app's primary advantage is its extensive protocol support, allowing users to browse and play content directly from SMB (Windows shares), FTP, UPnP, and WebDAV sources. This eliminates the need to manually transfer files to a device, making it practical for watching high-quality movie files or archived home videos directly from network storage. A specific use case involves accessing a media collection on a Synology NAS; users can enter the server address and credentials within VLC's 'Browsing' section to navigate folders and stream content seamlessly. The app's robust playback engine handles a wide array of codecs, including less common ones like MKV with FLAC audio or AVI files from older cameras, which many cloud-focused players struggle with. However, some user reviews indicate that recent updates have introduced instability, with playlists sometimes failing to persist and playback occasionally stuttering on complex network paths. Despite these intermittent bugs, the app's core functionality for direct network streaming remains a significant strength for users with local media libraries. For reliable playback of diverse file types over a local network, it offers a level of compatibility that is difficult to match.