Version updates and brightness control

[michaelintaos]

Hello all,
New to the forum and have some questions that I have searched for and can't seem to find an answer. I would greatly appreciate any help that anyone could afford me. Obviously, I am running Linux on my PC and love it, but my knowledge of it's operation is at absolutely zero. When I first started using Linux and tried to install VLC, it literally took me several days to get it installed and running. I could not even tell you how I did it, using youtubes and various other online resources. With that said, my problem is that there is no "check for updates" under help in my VLC player and I am not even able to find what version I am currently running?
Second problem is that under video tools effects and filters, my brightness has completely stopped working with image adjust checked and turned on.
The only thing that I am able to find is that possibly the unknown to me version I am currently running has a completely automatic updates running on it? But if this is correct could this be the reason why did my brightness stop working, just out of the blue one day?
Thank you very much for your time and considerations