I've had the same power settings for over a year. The monitor turns off after 20 minutes.
I frequently play CDs. I have the settings so that the screen goes off after 20 minutes of inactivity.
However, when I play a CD (and they're all longer than 20 minutes), the monitor turns off and I don't hear audio anymore.
I have "disable screen saver" checked.
When I use Windows Media Player, and their "allow screen saver" is unchecked, then it behaves how I want. CD playback isn't interrupted.
I want the same behavior in VLC.