Video Skips 1st Few Frames (etc.)

[norphin]

I'm using Flash 8 to create a portfolio site with .flv files that progressively download via NetConnection, and am experiencing a couple of minor annoyances, including:

- The video skips ahead a few frames when it starts playing (once the 15-second buffer is full).

- Sometimes a clip will flash black, green or red at the start, and the "loading" text-image gets a bizarre halo effect.

I built the player from scratch, following Lee Brimelow's tutorial at gotoandlearn.com or at Creative Cow. (He used MX 2004.)

Here's a scene from the site. You can click on the purple dinosaur to access two sample clips: (clip removed)

I'm using "setBufferTime(15)" to show/hide controls and the "loading" text, and the clips range in size from about 1.5MB to 6MB. The video is encoded as "Progressive download from Web server," "Flash 7" (Sorenson Spark, one clip is "medium" and the other "high" quality), with no advanced settings.

I'm wondering if this sort of custom-coded player is inherently a bit buggy, or if it was fine for its time but not for Flash 8, or if it's just me! Most of the issues seem to be related to download, but not all of them. The scrubber, e.g., is not altogether smooth. Have others had similar glitches? I'm leery of using a skin, mostly because I don't want to force users to upgrade their player. I also like the ease with which my current approach lets me customize the player. (And I've heard bad rumors about using Components.) I'm using similar code on this site, and the scrubber seems to be a smidge funky there sometimes, too. I haven't noticed any frame skips on that one, though, although it could be masked by the fact that those videos have virtually no movement at the start.

Any tips -- or recommendations of alternate player code -- are most welcome indeed. And appreciated!

[flashvideo]

Are you positive the skip is not in the original converted file and just being replicated? Have you tried using other encoders to confirm its the FLash 8 ?
http://www.flvhosting.com/index.php?ssp=3
http://www.videospark.com -- players to look at and try

[norphin]

Yep, skip's not in the originals. If you rewind and play again, there's no skip. I'll check out those links, tho, thanks.

The workaround I'm using is to add a large image to the loading graphic, so that the video is hidden until the buffer fills. The downside is that should the buffer empty out at any time during playback, the video will disappear. Better than the skip, imho.