I'd still suggest going the playlist route. You can hook up a dynamic text field to display the text as well. Here's an example:
http://www.drheimer.com/video/
each video comes with complete text transcript (Click to View Transcript button). Select a video and view the transcript to test.
However, if you choose not to go that route, create a new .swf that has two frames. The first frame is a framegrab of something from the video and a stop action in the frame. A "play" button has actions that gotoAndStop in frame two, which holds the actual video player. That way the video player does not load unless the viewer chooses to go to (frame 2) and view that particular video.
Best wishes,
Eye for Video
www.cidigitalmedia.com