How can I watch videos served on a Windows network on a Linux machine?

I have some files shared on a Windows computer and I would like to be able to watch the files directly from that computer on my Linux computer which is connected to a TV in another room. I'm able to access the files with the samba client but when I try to open it with kaffeine media player, it seems like it trys to play, but I see no video and hear no sound. I also tried playing the videos in MPlayer, but the program just starts to transfer the file to my computer instead of just playing it right there. I know I could stream my videos from my Windows system using VLC, but that means I'd have to go to my Windows machine and pick out the files to stream. Does anyone know if there are any more efficient ways of doing this? Any suggestions will be appreciated. Thank you!