I have ended up just using jQuery to detect if IE is being used and if its less than version 9. If it is it displays an image if not it displays the Edge Animate composition.
<div id="slideshow"></div>
<script>
var ua = $.browser;
if ( ua.msie && ua.version < "9" )
{
$("#slideshow").html( "<br><img src='edgeanimate_assets/AnimatedBanner/images/Poster.png' width='960' height='325'>" );
}
else
{
$("#slideshow").html( "<object id='EdgeID' name='EdgeID' type='text/html' width = '960' height ='325' data ='edgeanimate_assets/AnimatedBanner/AnimatedBanner.html' ></object>" );
}
</script>
Can't explain why the downlevel feature of Animate is not working.