IE8 images do not seem to load in properly.

I am building a new site with the latest versions of views and views slideshow. In Firefox, all is well. In IE8 the images do not seem to load in advance. On a slide transition, the image is loaded in parts (instead of the smooth fade transition that I selected).

This is the testsite:
http://www.themasterlabs.com/sai/

This is the drupal.settings:

<!--//--><![CDATA[//><!--
jQuery.extend(Drupal.settings, { "basePath": "/sai/", "admin_menu": { "margin_top": 1, "position_fixed": 1 }, "IAS_settings": { "word_size": "3", "resultsShown": false, "countCharsShown": false, "IAS_el": null, "IAS_el_res": null, "word_size_msg": "Er moet gezocht woren met meer dan 3 karakters." }, "lightbox2": { "rtl": "0", "file_path": "/sai/(\\w\\w/)sites/default/files", "default_image": "/sai/sites/all/modules/lightbox2/images/brokenimage.jpg", "border_size": "10", "font_color": "000", "box_color": "fff", "top_position": "", "overlay_opacity": "0.6", "overlay_color": "999999", "disable_close_click": 1, "resize_sequence": "0", "resize_speed": 100, "fade_in_speed": 100, "slide_down_speed": 100, "use_alt_layout": 0, "disable_resize": 0, "disable_zoom": 0, "force_show_nav": 0, "loop_items": 0, "node_link_text": "View Image Details", "node_link_target": 0, "image_count": "Image !current of !total", "video_count": "Video !current of !total", "page_count": "Page !current of !total", "lite_press_x_close": "press \x3ca href=\"#\" onclick=\"hideLightbox(); return FALSE;\"\x3e\x3ckbd\x3ex\x3c/kbd\x3e\x3c/a\x3e to close", "download_link_text": "Download Original", "enable_login": false, "enable_contact": false, "keys_close": "c x 27", "keys_previous": "p 37", "keys_next": "n 39", "keys_zoom": "z", "keys_play_pause": "32", "display_image_size": "", "image_node_sizes": "()", "trigger_lightbox_classes": "", "trigger_lightbox_group_classes": "", "trigger_slideshow_classes": "", "trigger_lightframe_classes": "", "trigger_lightframe_group_classes": "", "custom_class_handler": 0, "custom_trigger_classes": "", "disable_for_gallery_lists": true, "disable_for_acidfree_gallery_lists": true, "enable_acidfree_videos": true, "slideshow_interval": 5000, "slideshow_automatic_start": true, "slideshow_automatic_exit": true, "show_play_pause": true, "pause_on_next_click": false, "pause_on_previous_click": true, "loop_slides": false, "iframe_width": 600, "iframe_height": 400, "iframe_border": 1, "enable_video": 0 }, "nice_menus_options": { "delay": "800", "speed": "slow" }, "cron": { "basePath": "/sai/poormanscron", "runNext": 1289307092 }, "viewsSlideshowThumbnailHover": { "#views_slideshow_thumbnailhover_main_frontpage_slideshow-block_1": { "num_divs": 4, "teasers_last": 1, "id_prefix": "#views_slideshow_thumbnailhover_main_", "div_prefix": "#views_slideshow_thumbnailhover_div_", "vss_id": "frontpage_slideshow-block_1", "view_id": "frontpage_slideshow-block_1", "timeout": "5000", "sort": 1, "effect": "fade", "speed": "300", "start_paused": 0, "fade_value": 0.25, "hover_breakout": "teaser", "hover": "hover", "main_fields": { "field_fotofps_fid": "field_fotofps_fid", "title": "title", "type": "type", "field_datum_value": "field_datum_value", "field_locatieevent_nid": "field_locatieevent_nid", "field_omschrijvingslideshow_value": "field_omschrijvingslideshow_value", "field_fotofps_fid_1": 0 }, "breakout_fields": { "field_fotofps_fid_1": "field_fotofps_fid_1", "title": "title", "field_fotofps_fid": 0, "type": 0, "field_datum_value": 0, "field_locatieevent_nid": 0, "field_omschrijvingslideshow_value": 0 }, "delay": "0", "fixed_height": "1", "random": "0", "pause": "1", "pause_on_click": "0", "pause_when_hidden": 0, "pause_when_hidden_type": "full", "amount_allowed_visible": "", "remember_slide": 0, "remember_slide_days": "1", "pager_event": "mouseover", "controls": "0", "image_count": "0", "sync": "1", "advanced": "", "ie": { "cleartype": "true", "cleartypenobg": "false" }, "nowrap": "0" } }, "views": { "ajax_path": [ "/sai/views/ajax", "/sai/views/ajax" ], "ajaxViews": [ { "view_name": "frontpage_slideshow", "view_display_id": "block_1", "view_args": "", "view_path": "home", "view_base_path": null, "view_dom_id": 1, "pager_element": 0 }, { "view_name": "lijst_alle_events", "view_display_id": "block_1", "view_args": "", "view_path": "home", "view_base_path": null, "view_dom_id": 2, "pager_element": 0 } ] } });
//--><!]]>

This is a bit of a showstopper for the site going live. Any ideas?