Running Windows on my MBP for TotalVid..??

I have had my MBP now for about a little over a year and couldn't be happier. I love the switch. However....I was a long time user of a website called TotalVid. It has downloadable/streaming instructional video for all kinds of different things. Problem is you can only download the videos from a Windows based PC.

This is the ONLY reason I would ever want to attemp to run Windows on my Mac. Do I really need to get a crossover type program? Which would be the best one to just get me onto the site and be able to download videos again. I dont need to run any type of Windows based applications for programs. I hate the thought of having Windows on my computer due to the virus trouble I experienced with my PC. I love not having to deal with all that jazz with my mac....NO VIRUSES!!!

If I put a program like that on my mac and run windows or something like it, am I putting my self at risk for virus trouble again? Would it just be worth it to get a really cheap, (giveaway pretty much from my university) PC and have that as my "totalvid computer"?

Hmm, I checked out the site and looked like all it needs is windows media player. Do you have the Flip4Mac WMV plugin for Qucktime installed? That would let you play the windows media files (note: there is a old Mac version of WMP but it's from '03 and I would avoid it).

I do have the Flip4Mac plugin for Quicktime. Here is the message I get when I tried to download a vid:

We are sorry but TotalVid uses Windows Digital Rights Managment to protect our content and is not compatable with your operating system.

Ah, I see then (that's pretty lame though; you'd think with the rising popularity of Macs and Linux they'd make it more cross-platform compatible). To stay on topic though, i'd say use Virtualbox; it's free and runs XP great. As long as you have at least a gig (preferably 2GB+) and a XP disk you'll be fine. I run XP, Ubuntu, FreeDOS, and a bunch of other random stuff to test out on my MBP from an eSATA external drive using Virtualbox and it's very quick and responsive. Just create a virtual machine with between 256-512mb of ram and at least a 5 GB virtual disk (i'd say about 15-20 since you want to use it to DL videos) making sure that it is set to mount your coreaudio and DVD drive at start, then install XP normally. Once it's all done, install the VMware tools and restart XP. It's a pretty slick process and has worked well for me.

I agree that the site hasn't "updated" its technology to be compatible...would make this a lot easier. Thanks for the reply though! I appreciate all the advice. I will give it some thought.