Playing DVD's in VLC media player

Hello all!

I have recently obtained a Mack Mini and have been setting it up slowly. I am trying to use VLC media player to play DVD's because I don't like the default media player. I followed an article I found on the internet on how to set this up and did set it up as suggested. Here's the problem I am having.
When I insert a DVD to play, it acts like it's going to spin up, then just sists there. I was told to open VLC media player. Then, press command, d. Then ctrl-option-right arrow over to the disc option. Then ctrl-option-right arrow to the optn option and press ctrl-option-spacebar.
I do all of that and nothing happens. When I have sat there for about 15 minutes, the disc finally spins and starts. I'm driving myself nuts here. Am I missing something here? I am running the latest version of VLC media player.
I am also running the latest version of ElCapiTan. Sorry if that is spelled incorrectly. I have tried to e-mail VideoLan but, no help there.
If anyone can help, please let me know. I can be reached on twitter of course or up here on the site.