I am having "boo coo" problems with VLC playing movies.
I put a DVD in the tray and the result is an endless loop.
I have re-installed VLC.
I can not find a .deb version for VLC.
Are .deb files going the way of Dodo birds?
Is Snap the only option ?
Celluoid has no problem playing movies.
I am having a great day. 
What do you mean by "endless loop"?
For Celluloid, make sure that you "un-check" the loop option which is circled in the below snapshot. If the "button" background is the same colour as the rest, it is "un-checked", and that will prevent the endless repeat of a video file.
Starting point is what release you're using; however a quick CLI scan of what's available shows vlc available for all releases; it's installed as a deb package on my system
guiverc@d7050-next:/de2900/uwn$ rmadison vlc
vlc | 2.1.2-2build2 | trusty/universe | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, powerpc, ppc64el
vlc | 2.1.6-0ubuntu14.04.4 | trusty-security/universe | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, powerpc, ppc64el
vlc | 2.1.6-0ubuntu14.04.4 | trusty-updates/universe | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, powerpc, ppc64el
vlc | 2.2.2-5 | xenial/universe | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, powerpc, ppc64el, s390x
vlc | 2.2.2-5ubuntu0.16.04.4 | xenial-security/universe | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, powerpc, ppc64el, s390x
vlc | 2.2.2-5ubuntu0.16.04.4 | xenial-updates/universe | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, powerpc, ppc64el, s390x
vlc | 3.0.1-3build1 | bionic/universe | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, s390x
vlc | 3.0.8-0ubuntu18.04.1 | bionic-security/universe | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, s390x
vlc | 3.0.8-0ubuntu18.04.1 | bionic-updates/universe | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, s390x
vlc | 3.0.9.2-1 | focal/universe | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
vlc | 3.0.16-1build7 | jammy/universe | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
vlc | 3.0.20-3build6 | noble/universe | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
vlc | 3.0.21-2 | oracular/universe | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
vlc | 3.0.21-9 | plucky/universe | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
Well, it does not work reliably on my system.
It used to work pretty much flawlessly.
Go to the VLC website to see what I am talking about.
You may need some other system libraries to play dvd's; see this guide for some tips: How to Play DVD in Ubuntu 22.04, 20.04 and 18.04
I have already done your suggestions.
As I see it, UM and VLC used to work when trying to play a DVD movie.
It is important that I have the ability to play calming music for my intense pain.
I will shortly install Ubuntu after backing up very important files to a 2nd platter drive.
Well .deb versions or VLC certainly exist.
gdebi installs them along with needed dependencies, but I still recommend you use synaptic.
It's a bit of a hassle but you could use MakeMKV to rip your dvd. If trying it out you can get a temporary key to fully access the program. Just search 'MakeMKV registration key'. The producer of the program does not mind. A new key is produced for every upgrade of the program I believe but I've never had to upgrade. I've done many DVDs. I don't run any through the pc now just off the hard drive and don't have a problem.
Thanks for the idea. I am considering it.
I downloaded a 178 Kb vlc file. Can we be that small?
