There was a quick fix discussed here....

http://www.jeroenwijering.com/?thread=3994

my player.inc now looks like this:

<?php

$vshare_player = <<<EOT

<script type="text/javascript" src="{$config["baseurl"]}/player/swfobject.js"></script>

<p id="player">Get Flash to see this player.</p>

<script type="text/javascript">
var so = new SWFObject('{$config["baseurl"]}/player/player.swf','player','425','350','7');
so.addParam("allowfullscreen","true");
so.addVariable("file","{$config["baseurl"]}/flvideo/$vid.flv");
so.addVariable("image","{$config["baseurl"]}/thumb/$vid.jpg");
so.addVariable("logo","{$config["baseurl"]}/templates/images/watermark.gif");
so.addVariable("link","{$config["watermark_url"]}");
so.addVariable("linktarget","_blank");
setTimeout("so.write('player');",3)
</script>

EOT;

?>

The change was:

setTimeout("so.write('player');",3)
At least the white blank player appears LESS often.