I've also tried reverting to an earlier version of VLC. I uninstalled VLC 2.1.3 (64bit) version and installed 2.0.9 (32 bit) version wondering (though I have only the haziest understanding of these things ) whether 32bit v 64bit was a possible cause of the problem. Sad to say the error messages kept on appearing. So I have now reinstalled 2.1.3.
I've looked in the prefs to see if there's any way of disabling error messages. but haven't found any way of doing it.