This happens when VLC was running and the Apple TV goes to sleep. Then when coming out of sleep and you continue playing the screensaver will come on. Closing VLC and re-opening stops it from happening.
I aslo experience the same where it is an SMB share I've hosted from a Windows system as well as tried sharing from my router's USB port and the Apple TV is connected via LAN. Seems to happen with higher bitrate videos but have not played around much to see where the "limits" are.
Cool, thanks for letting me know!
Would it be possible to do a pull down refresh or other some such that simply performs a scan like it does when connecting to the share?
When using VLC for Apple TV and browsing a SMB share, is there a way to refresh the folder contents?
The only way I can see is to go all the way back to the main menu and reconnect to the share.