Android VideoView on a fragment not working on first view, works after orientation change to landscape

Question

I am veteran developer but a beginner at Android development. I am stuck trying to get a videoview on my Android app to show a video from the web. All I see is the progressDialog loading screen with a white background when I start the fragment. The video will start playing immediately after I change orientation of the device from portrait to landscape which would suggest I simply have a layout setting wrong. But when I initially start in landscape the video does not play either. It will play if I switch to portrait, and then back to landscape. It is a very odd behavior.

I did try to research this issue only to find that video playing on Android devices seems to be a major pain point for most Android developers. Even the google developer API documentation seems incomplete regarding this topic. Below is my code, maybe someone can see what I am missing.

VideoFragment.java

@Override
public void onActivityCreated(Bundle savedInstanceState)
{
    super.onActivityCreated(savedInstanceState);
    video = (VideoView) getView().findViewById(R.id.standardVideoView);
    getActivity().getWindow().setFormat(PixelFormat.TRANSLUCENT);

    MediaController mediaController = new MediaController(getActivity());
    mediaController.setMediaPlayer(video);
    video.setMediaController(mediaController);

    video.setVideoURI(Uri.parse("http://<PRIVATE DOMAIN>.com/KLFY_20130806112335457AB.mp4"));
    video.requestFocus();

    video.start(); // this is called successfully every time the fragment is created

    progressDialog = ProgressDialog.show(getActivity(), "", "Buffering video...", true);
    progressDialog.setCancelable(true);



    video.setOnPreparedListener(new MediaPlayer.OnPreparedListener()
    {
        // this event is only raised after the device changes to landscape from portrait
        public void onPrepared(MediaPlayer mp)
        {
            Log.i("DEBUGGING", "VIDEO PREPARED");
            progressDialog.dismiss();


        }
    });
}

video_fragment.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
          android:id="@+id/videoViewLayout"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:gravity="center"
android:background="#000000">

<VideoView
    android:id="@+id/standardVideoView"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:layout_gravity="center" />

</LinearLayout>

Thanks for the help in advance!