Flv odd behavior in swf on web but not authoring

Question

Hi All,
I've been building a movie that includes linked flvs animations that were created in After Effects. (I need to export as flv because I need that alpha channel so you can 'see thru' the movies to the content below). These linked flvs are located within child movie clips. I fade those movie clips up and down with alpha tweens and then remove them (using removeChild) after they fade down for optimization purposes.
While building this project, I tested it often in authoring mode and everything always works fine: All flvs are open and play as they should. When I remove a child movie clip and then add it back (using the addChildAt) it appears on the correct layer in the composition.
I also posted the movie, in earlier stages, to test it on the web and it worked fine. Now, however, after I added only four more flvs (in movie clips ...using the same method), I see several problems that I never see when I test in authoring mode: On the web, some of those flvs load late. One flv ('wheelchair man') appears in front of another flv that it should be behind. At one point the largest flv animation just vanishes. Here is the movie:
http://home.comcast.net/~samiri/director/mortals/froggy/froggyPortrait.swf
-You might have to reload the movie to see the intermittent problems.
Again, these problems never show when I'm testing in authoring. (For example, that 'wheelchair man' is on the correct layer: He's behind the wall instead of in front of it.) Also: The late-appearing flv problem happens intermittently on the web.
I am ready to tear the whole thing apart and rebuild it piece by piece, testing each on the web, but I'm hoping someone has an idea what the problem might be before I begin that long process.
Thanks very much.
Message was edited by: paul_james123

Answer 1

Both. The z order is wrong...and the flvs don't load on time. (They eventually do load but after a lag that results in a gap in what is supposed to be a smooth dissolving of one MC into another (I tween down one MC at the same time I tween up of the next one). Again, neither of these problems show when I test in authoring mode, only when viewed in a browser.
Thanks for sticking with me, Rob. Since this seems like a thorny optimization problem, I'm isolating to test: Let’s only look at the "MCs don't load on time" issue. (forget the ‘z order’ problem for now):
Here’s my stripped down movie:
http://home.comcast.net/~samiri/director/mortals/froggy/
I only put 2 cue points in soundtrack now:
1st.) at 3500 milliseconds, tween out the 'poster frame' (of face1 + room background)
-This 'poster frame' is the placeholder image of face1 + bkgrn, put on the stage to hide the fact that the flv (with animating version of same content) loads more slowly than the bitmaps on the stage. I dissolve that poster frame down with the first cue point in the soundtrack (supposedly after the first MC has already loaded).
2nd.) at 9500 milliseconds , alpha tween face 1 down and face 2 up.
-Both tweens are supposed to happen at same time.
I’ve tested on 3 computers (vista, Win 8, Win8.1 pro) with 3 cpu/RAM/ghz configs (Celeron/2gb/1.66ghz, corei3/4gb/2.20ghz, corei7/16gb/2.4ghz) and in 3 versions of IE, one ver of Chrome and 2 versions of Firefox:
All show a gap in the ‘alpha tween up/down’ sequence (face1 tweens down and then you see the stage for 1-4 secs, then face2 tweens up). Most also show a sec of missing background (The animating room MC doesn’t tween up as the poster frame is tweened down so you see the white of the stage for 1-3 secs).
I’ve tested by viewing in a browser on my desktop as well as in a browser on the web. Both show the gap between the fade down of face1 and the fade up of face2. Firefox on the desktop seems to do the best (the room background MC doesn’t go missing very often, except the first time the browser accesses the .swf. (However, even Firefox, browsing locally, on my fastest computer shows the face-dissolve gap.)
So, as indicated, I think this is a problem where the movie clips that contain the flvs don’t tween up fast enough and play the flvs. What do you think?
Is there any way to optimize this method so it doesn’t fall apart when viewed through a browser?
Thanks much