This is another fairly recent thing. The sound on VLC will play for a few seconds and then stop. Altogether. I have so far sussed out this is a VLC problem because the sound works on Totem when same video is played. Any suggestions?
See this
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10573557/SUSE%20Misc/vlc_audio_pause_resume_issue.png
or try using OSS instead of ALSA
Cheers. Works like a treat now.
Lucky guess