It can be, depending on your server. This circumvents the need for the PMS to read and send you the data itself, as well as encapsulating it in the HTTP protocol. It’s highly efficient, but unnecessary.
Using a direct way to access the data without that middleman (such as NFS, SMB, whatever) eliminates that.
I’ve seen certain high bitrate situations, where this solves some buffering/lag issues as well.
It’s definitely not a must, but it doesn’t hurt, either, as you’re skipping a protocol (and complexity, separate buffers etc.) that isn’t necessary.
Edit: if you want to try it out (I haven’t had time to create the wiki, yet), create a network source with credentials in kodi via the file manager, then long press on a library in PM4K you want to mount. This way you don’t have to mess with json files.
I’d also recommend to raise the SMB chunk size in Kodi (21) to 256 (or higher)
