Flash downloading blocks page nav

Question

I know my actionscript better than I know the browser
environment, although I'm getting to grips with javascript because
of the similarity. But some things like this are uncharted
territory...
With a couple of flv players downloading some 3Mb and 7Mb
flvs after the web page has rendered, the page nav in the
containing page is blocked. So a click on a nav button (not flash)
in the
will
result in a new page load, but it waits until what I assume is
one of two simulaneous http connection slots are freed up. This can
take a while depending on the user's connection speed and is
unusual/unexpected/sub-standard behaviour for a web page. Having
the two videos loading simultaneously is a requirement rather than
sequencing the loads.
I know that browsers are limited to the number of
simultaneous connections to a single domain for many reasons and
that standards come into play. The flvs here are hosted at the same
domain.
I've built optional delay flashvars for each player to
permitting staggering them somewhat but that's a guess at best and
won't solve the problem for everyone and could disadvantage some
with very fast connections. I should mention that the target user
is a business client so broadband users and the requirement is that
the videos are ready to play asap.
I understand that placing the media in another domain is an
option because the browser connections limit applies per domain. I
also know you can change the settings for browsers to increase the
connections per domain, but that's not helpful here... and that
some browsers are less restrictive.
What I would like to know is:
Is there any simple way in flash to allow the regular html
page nav to work as normal when flash has a stranglehold on the two
simultaneous connections. Am I missing something obvious? TIA,
GWD

Answer 1

@clbeech: thanks for your reply.
I've thought of things like using javascript via
ExternalInterface to tell the players to change the contentPaths of
the flvplaybacks to nonexistent files (I know that works for
NetStream, don't know if it works for FLVPlayback). But I was only
asked to work on the flash content for the page and if possible
preferred to avoid making a requirement to add in extra js for the
website developer and have the nav behave differently for that
page. If that's the only way apart from using a separate domain for
the media then I guess that's what I'll have to do.
What I don't understand is why a browser page request doesn't
over-ride the grip that flash has on the http connections... and
perhaps there's something simple that I'm missing in either being
able to do this or understanding the fundamentals of why it doesn't
make sense to permit it in terms of how browsers work.
Anyhow I can identify so far four solutions
- other domain hosting of the content(not desirable)
- configurable loading delays for starting the downloads
(already in place, but not really a solution)
- force single load queueing (not desirable)
- javascript/ExternalInterface to tell flash players to
"stop" download to free up connections
Thanks again.GWD