Macbook air stutters during streaming video
According to a post on VLC's own forum, there is a "known issue" with streaming directly from a NAS. 

Here's what they have to say on the streaming from NAS issue.


  "Known issue, but I agree it's really annoying.
  I also met the lagging issue when playing directly from NAS, but through UPnP, playback is really smooth.  
  
  If your NAS has UPnP server, consider using it."


So, the user "nkoriyama" suggests enabling uPnP as the solution, if it's available as an option for you.

Note: This answer is taken from the comment stream under the op's question