OK,
for those that are interested, I found time to to try these things today.
I installed LE 8.1.0, added a movie library using 'SMB://NAS_IP/HD_Movies/....' LE discovered the library of BLU-RAY ISO and played the titles without issue.
I then tried 'SMB://NAS_NAME/DVD_Movies/....' LE discovered the library of DVD (Video_TS structure) and played the titles without issue.
So the last update seems to have resolved the issue with using the host-name instead of IP. I would never have thought to try IP instead of host-name, so thanks for the hint. But it seems it is all sorted by the later version anyway.
I also moved on and installed the NextPVR add-on and connected it to my server. Apart from an error message during instalation (although it still installed) This too works well for live TV and recording.
So, two wins in one evening. Next is to connect to AVR and see what sound we can get from it.
Thanks again to those who commented.