It's strange because I was just watching a video series from lynda.com and I went through like 5 videos...all worked fine. When I turned on the 6th vid, there was no video but the audio worked. I initially thought that something was wrong with the particular file, so I went and checked the videos I had just finished watching; they didn't work either.
The lynda.com files are in .mov format. Confirmed other formats that do the same thing: avi and flv.
I tried a fresh download and fresh install but it's still not working. A video card problem is ruled out because the files play fine in other players, it's just that I love vlc. I like the picture quality and high volume. Is there a solution to this problem or a player that's as great as vlc? :p