well, as you've stated, streaming doesn't work. Perhaps the cache isn't large enough to support the operation. So I went along and transferred the avi from my server to the internal SD, using ES. Attempts to play the file via ES failed, resulting in a "this file cannot be played", after playing for a couple of seconds. I got the same result when tying to playi the file from the library.
This is a bit disappointing, as I would hate to have to use a thumb drive anytime I wanted to view a video.

Any suggestions towards a resolution would be appreciated.