ebuild doesn't take care about USE flags and doesn't installs ffmpeg, that needs in order to compile vlc emerge --info Portage 2.1 (default-linux/amd64/2006.0, gcc-3.4.5, glibc-2.3.6-r3, 2.6.16-gentoo-r7 x86_64) ================================================================= System uname: 2.6.16-gentoo-r7 x86_64 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3200+ Gentoo Base System version 1.6.14 ccache version 2.3 [disabled] dev-lang/python: 2.4.2 dev-python/pycrypto: 2.0.1-r5 dev-util/ccache: 2.3 dev-util/confcache: [Not Present] sys-apps/sandbox: 1.2.17 sys-devel/autoconf: 2.13, 2.59-r7 sys-devel/automake: 1.4_p6, 1.5, 1.6.3, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.6-r1 sys-devel/binutils: 2.16.1-r2 sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.3.13-r2 sys-devel/libtool: 1.5.22 virtual/os-headers: 2.6.11-r2 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-march=athlon64 -Os -pipe" CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/3.5/env /usr/kde/3.5/share/config /usr/kde/3.5/shutdown /usr/lib/X11/xkb /usr/share/config /usr/share/texmf/dvipdfm/config/ /usr/share/texmf/dvips/config/ /usr/share/texmf/tex/generic/config/ /usr/share/texmf/tex/platex/config/ /usr/share/texmf/xdvi/" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/env.d /etc/gconf /etc/splash /etc/terminfo" CXXFLAGS="-march=athlon64 -Os -pipe" DISTDIR="/mnt/vfat/Backup/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="autoconfig buildpkg distlocks fixpackages metadata-transfer sandbox sfperms strict" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://distfiles.gentoo.org http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/gentoo" LANG="it_IT.UTF-8" MAKEOPTS="-j2" PKGDIR="/home/subbia/portage/packages" PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --delete-after --stats --timeout=180 --exclude='/distfiles' --exclude='/local' --exclude='/packages'" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/mnt/vfat/Backup/portage" SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="amd64 X aac acpi alsa avi berkdb bitmap-fonts bluetooth cli crypt cups dbus divx4linux doc dri dvd dvdr dvdread eds emboss emul-linux-x86 encode fam ffmpeg flac foomaticdb fortran gif gpm gstreamer gtk gtk2 hal ieee1394 imlib ipv6 isdnlog java javamail jpeg kde lzw lzw-tiff mikmod mp3 mpeg ncurses nls nptl nsplugin ogg opengl pam pcmcia pcre pdflib perl png pppd python qt quicktime readline reflection samba sdl session smartcard source spell spl ssl tcpd tiff truetype truetype-fonts type1-fonts unicode usb wifi wxwindows xine xorg xpm xv xvid zlib elibc_glibc kernel_linux userland_GNU" Unset: CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, INSTALL_MASK, LC_ALL, LDFLAGS, LINGUAS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS, PORTDIR_OVERLAY
Reopen with some errors and emerge -pv ffmpeg output.
emerge -pv vlc These are the packages that would be merged, in order: Calculating dependencies... done! [ebuild R ] media-video/vlc-0.8.2-r2 USE="X aac alsa dvd ffmpeg flac mp3 mpeg ncurses nls nsplugin ogg opengl png samba sdl truetype unicode wxwindows xv -a52 -aalib -arts -bidi -cdda -corba -daap -debug -dts -dvb -esd -fbcon -ggi -gnutls -httpd -joystick -libcaca -lirc -live -matroska -mod -oss -screen -speex -stream -svg -theora -v4l -vcd -vlm -vorbis* -xml -xosd" 0 kB emerge -pv ffmpeg These are the packages that would be merged, in order: Calculating dependencies... done! [ebuild R ] media-video/ffmpeg-0.4.9_p20051216 USE="aac doc encode ieee1394 imlib ogg sdl truetype xvid zlib -a52 -debug -dts -network -oss -test -theora -threads -v4l -vorbis" 0 kB
You still didn't post any errors you get. And - you have ffmpeg installed, I don't see what's that missing dependency in the summary about (not missing, btw).