While Blu-ray is enjoying growth in the rental category so far in 2009, overall sales of Blu-ray movie/TV titles grew by slightly more than 90 percent in the first two quarters of the year. The 1080p format is being aided by lower price points for some models of Blu-ray players and titles, and perhaps increased awareness by consumers that such players are backwards-compatible with their existing standard DVD libraries.

For title sales for the week ending July 5, according to Home Media Research, Blu-ray revenue was $10.73 million — up more than 77 percent over the same holiday week last year. Standard DVD sales were down 14 percent over a year ago, albeit with $144.3 million in sales, standard DVD still managed to capture 90 percent of overall DVD/Blu-ray disc sales for that week.

Yet while figures between both disc formats for that week are combined, overall DVD/Blu-ray sales revenue was down nearly 11 percent over a year ago.