Yesterday Netflix announced it would begin rolling out a big update to the Netflix Movie Viewer, which lets PC users stream thousands of films directly to their PC instead of having to mess with discs, sleeves, and actually standing up to walk to the TV.

Long in the works, the new version supports Macs and -- far more importantly -- now works in Firefox.

I got an early install of the new streamer, which will be deployed to all accounts by the end of the year. Here are some thoughts on the second-gen streamer, so you'll be prepared when the lucky day arrives for you.

For starters, the new streamer uses Microsoft Silverlight, a Flash-like technology that is growing in popularity. It's a quick download (and it comes down automatically when you play your first film with the streamer), but you may actually have Silverlight already installed (it's also available via Windows Update, and you may have installed it accidentally in the past).

Once Silverlight is in place, streaming is quick and easy. If you've used the old streamer, the 2nd gen system will look and feel very familiar. There are only minimal controls, with a pause button, a horizontal progress bar showing you how far into the movie you are, a volume control, a "full screen" button, and a "back to browsing" exit button. One new feature is that the time display now shows hours:minutes:seconds (both where you are in the film and how long the whole movie is) instead of just hours:minutes. This makes it so much easier to rewind and fast-forward (which you do by dragging the slider on the progress bar) and find the scene you're looking for based on time. The old minute-based display was too brutish to be of much good. As well, when you drag that slider, the display immediately changes to showing thumbnails of the film, snapped at 10-second increments, which is similar to the way it worked before, but it's more helpful with the new time display.

Responsiveness is similar to the original streamer. It might even be a little faster than before, with quick movie loads and delays of only a few seconds while you wait for scenes to pick back up after you rewind or fast-forward.

And yes, it works great in both IE and Firefox. Identically, in fact.

Overall, I love it, and with unlimited streaming now included with your DVD plan, it's a great way for Macheads and Firefox enthusiasts to get into the game.