I have exactly the same problem. I've been checking Synaptic nearly every day since the update, hoping that something has been done, but so far there haven't been any updates since then, let alone anything to get VLC back. My partial workaround has been to install the Windows version of VLC through WINE, but that doesn't seem to prevent the screen from going black periodically. Whatever element that normally tells the machine that it shouldn't send the screen to power-saving mode doesn't seem to be present when I run VLC through WINE, and I do not know a way around that.