I also began having the black screen problem, stuttering problems, etc., once I moved into the 0.9 version range. I discovered that I could sometimes correct the black screen problem by choosing "Normal Size" under the Video menu, but this didn't solve the other problems, such as stuttering, dropping frames, etc. After trying a few of the newer 0.9 versions, I realized that I had to go back to 0.8.6i in order to restore everything to normal. On the other hand, my daughter's machine can run 0.9.3 fine.
The difference?
While both of our machines are early-model, eight-year-old G4's, System Profiler reveals that she has Core Graphics and Quartz Extreme support, while my G4 500 Mhz DP has neither. All I've got is a ATY, Rage128Pro chipset and 16 MB of VRAM, while she has a GeForce2 MX chipset and 32 MB of VRAM. I'm running Tiger 10.4.11 just fine, while she is really pushing it with Leopard 10.5.5.
So for the rest of you having this black screen problem, as others have stated, you probably just need to go back to a version of VLC that is more compatible with your machine.