While most of us have had no retail outlet for high definition discs, consumers at 250 test stores for Blockbuster have had access to HD DVD and Blu-ray discs. After some test marketing, the retail store will be expanding to 1, 700 stores – over one third of their North American stores. Here’s the catch, only Blu-ray will be made available in these new stores (those with existing HD DVD titles will keep them).

According to Blockbuster, the Blu-ray rentals outweighed the HD DVD format significantly enough to warrant the decision. Although specifics were not give, VideoScan reports a 66% market share (twice that of HD DVD). It’s not all bad news for HD DVD adopters however. The red topped boxes will be available through Blockbusters online service and Blockbuster said it is open to adding titles in their stores in the future if demand increases.