Normally the CODEC does not load the whole file, but just the start, and already plays it while loading the rest. But maybe for some reason this mechanism doesn't work due to a bug in the CODEC.

@pegamode: Open your movie-file with your common media player, there will be a lag of 1-2 (or even more) seconds, too.

I had a similar problem (with movies in wmv format) - till I started it in full screen modus. Just wondering, if there is a possibility to have during the millisecond loading time a white instead of a black screen?

When you play it on a texture, maybe filling the texture with white before?