Over roadrunner cable didn't see a prob.???

I don't have instant play turned on, do have turbo play on, don't have real one player sending any info... Perhaps playing with these settings might give some sort of results?

IMO, could be caused by traffic to/from your browser to the media server checking connection etc., trying to play the clip before there's sufficient amounts of data in the buffer on your PC, that sort of thing. Realmedia has a setting to lower video quality before audio etc. when it thinks bandwidth isn't available.

At any rate I'd try playing with the buffer settings for the realmedia file & in your player, possibly consider sticking a short leader before your clip, play with the ram script or page code to either initiate a delay or show a static image first, allowing a bit of extra time to fill up the real player buffer. To check the server end of things, depending on if you're using Helix etc., might see if you have the same prob. with a non-real file. To see if it's Vegas, use the stand alone helix encoder [you can customize the free, basic version by simply editing/creating your own audience files].

As a last resort, might want to consider a switch to winmedia. Kind of nice now days since the RealOne Player has a plugin to play winmedia.

luck
mike