Dark scenes - Strange patterning

[bendipa]

Whenever I view a video on VLC player, which has really dark scenes in it, some strange kaleidoscopic patterns can be seen.

I've put up a link which should be viewed preferably in a dark room. Some amorphous lighter 'clouds' patterning can be detected in the image, which of course is far more conspicuous and dynamic when viewing a video, as it changes shape and moves about. If you scroll it's more easily visible from this static shot. With brighter scenes this problem is not noticeable.

This issue occurs on all videos, whether I use Windows 7 or Ubuntu operating systems, but does not seem to occur with another media player, eg Totem Movie Player on Ubuntu. Any suggestions would be very helpful.