OK, solved this sound problem - in the usual way <sigh> by getting rid of that curse on sound called pulseaudio.
In openSUSE pulseaudio and alsa are inseparable in that you cannot remove pulseaudio because alsa depends on pulseaudio for some unknown reason unlike other distros (wot a marriage of workable with unworkable! :'( .)
However, in YaST2's Audio settings you can (in "Other" options, bottom right corner) for the sound card deselect "pulseaudio" - and this did the trick. You will lose the volume control icon on the top bar but who cares as long as the sound works correctly in vlc.
"Pulseaudio is a bug, a cockroach, someone please stomp on it!"
Can you please file a bug on this ? Sankar -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-gnome+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-gnome+help@opensuse.org