Netflix Instant Streaming has finally been added to Windows 7's Windows Media Center program, which allows Netflix subscribers to instantly stream movies that are available for streaming right to their Windows 7 PC in a matter of seconds. Each Netflix member subscriber receives unlimited hours of instant streaming each month, which is a huge plus if you have your PC connected to a TV or if you are looking to watch a new movie without having to wait for it to come in the mail from Netflix. It's easy to use and the interface is quite intuitive and it works great.

The Netflix Instant Streaming app is available in Windows Media Center under the "Movies" category and will automatically appear starting October 20, just two days before Windows 7's public release date. When you first open the Netflix app, it will ask to download a 4MB file and install it and once done, it will prompt you for your Netflix user name and password. If you are not a current Netflix subscriber, you can also choose to start a free 2-week trial of the service too.

Once you're signed in, you'll be presented with the main interface that lets you choose movies available for instant streaming from a variety of genres: New Arrivals: TV, New Arrivals: Movies, Comedy, Action & Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Independent, Romance, Thrillers, Television, Children & Family, Horror, Documentary, Foreign, Movies You'll Love (recommended using Netflix's recommendation engine), Fantasy, Action Thrillers, Psychological Thrillers, Crime Dramas, and Slashers & Serial Killers. Whew! That's quite a comprehensive list...perhaps too comprehensive. Luckily, there is a search feature (more on that later). Under each genre is a thumbnailed list of anywhere from 20 to 100 movies shown depending on the genre selected. Remember, even though Netflix has almost unlimited amounts of DVDs available through the mail, only a small percentage are available for instant streaming (but there still are a very large amount).

When you click on a specific movie listed, a movie details window will appear and will show the title, user rating, the length of movie, and a short synopsis of the movie. You can also play the trailer for the movie, which we really like. Also, along the time you can scroll to view the actors & actresses in the film and related movies, which is another nice feature. At this movie detail screen you can choose to either start watching via instant streaming or to add the movie to your mail queue.

Movies that you currently have in your DVD queue can also be viewed here and you can choose to watch them via streaming (if available) and delete them from your queue. However, you cannot reorder any of the movies in your queue from the Windows Media Center application, that must be done through the Netflix Web interface. You may also access your Instant Queue, which are movies you have saved to watch instantly at a later time.

It can be tough locating a specific movie from the vast selection of films and genres, but Netflix added a search feature that makes it much easier. You can input a movie or TV title into the search box and choose whether to show streaming only, DVD only, or all in your search results. There is also suggest as you type with the search field to help speed up input. Unfortunately, you cannot enter the name of an actor or actress.

Choosing to watch a movie through streaming works very nicely as long as you have a high-speed broadband Internet connection, which most homes do, so that probably won't be an issue. However, lower-quality DSL may not be good enough, but it's worth a try. When you choose to view a movie or TV show, the application will "test" your Internet connection and automatically adapt the content to best stream over your particular connection's speed. The application will also do a few other tasks, like acquire a content license from the Netflix Web servers, but in all, the time from first click to streaming was under 20 seconds, which is pretty instant if you ask us.

While watching content, playback is controlled through the regular Windows Media Center playback controls and show up in the bottom right of the screen when either activated from a remote or moused-over and disappear on their own when not used.

In our testing, playback was very smooth using AT&T's U-Verse high-speed broadband and the picture quality was very good and audio was in sync with the video and was crisp and clear.

In all, the Netflix Instant Streaming application is well worth using if you're a Netflix subscriber because you pay for it any If you aren't a subscriber, you may want to check out signing up, but at least try the two week free trial (credit card required). This application is an easy way to find something to watch if nothing good is on TV or if you have an impromptu gathering at your house. We should also mention that some of the content in the Netflix instant streaming catalogue is in high-definition, but some is not. There is way of determining if a specific TV show or movie is in HD in the Netflix interface without just watching it to find out, which is disappointing.