Page Loading order

[Agon]

First off the site is www.washougalfest.com. I created a video in After Effects that is 5.6 MB. I have set it to progressively download from the server with a buffer of 10 sec, swf format.
What is happening is the buttons don't load until the video the video is completely finished downloading.
What I want is for the video (swf file) to load in the html page after everything else is finished loading.
What am I doing wrong? I have them in the supposed proper order in the html code; I think.
Is there some code I can put in?
Thank you in advance,
Agon

[mlseim]

wow ... lots of Flash.

You're at the mercy of:
1) the user's operating system.
2) the user's connection speed.
3) the user's browser (IE, FF, Safari).
4) whether or not they can even view your Flash.

Not a very good answer to your question, but
what you have, is what you have ... Flash.

Other than the video in the middle, there's no reason
to use Flash on anything else, especially the navigation.

Your site will be unusable to many people.

[Agon]

I guess I should clarify.
Flash is not the problem and the navigation bar IS NOT flash only the header above and content below.
A huge majority of the users have the flash plug-in installed on their machine so they will be able to view it just fine and only the front page contains flash objects except the header on every page.
The site has been up for three weeks and has over 19,000 unique visits. I get e-mail all day from people using the multiple forms on the site. So I know that it is perfectly viewable by majority of the people.
I have tested the website on as low as a Pentium 100 mhz and it runs just fine.
I have tested it on all connection speeds and the only speed that I have an issue with is 256k capped and below. The movie buffers twice through playing. No big deal. So I am just at the mercy of their connection speed. That I have already established.
I have tested it in IE 6 an 7, Opera, Safari, and Firefox. And all load in the proper order as in everything loads first then the video swf loads and starts buffering EXCEPT in IE 6 and 7 it does not.
I guess my question is how can I get IE (which majority of the not so savvy users use) to load correctly. Is there some java script that I can put in to load the images on the page before anything else loads.
Hope this helps
Thanks

[Shadowfiend]

Have you tried doing the opposite; namely, using Javascript to drop the Flash video into the page *after* everything else loads? Perhaps have a placeholder there in the meantime.

The trouble here is that, as mentioned, it depends on the browser what order it will load things in. Chances are, at speeds faster than 256K it doesn't actually matter what gets loaded first, because the smaller things have a chance to load before the actual plugin manages to start buffering.