US sales of Blu-ray movies outstripped those of its rival HD-DVD format during the first half of 2007, according to figures from industry body Home Media Research (HMR).

Between 1 January and 1 July 2007, 1.6m Blu-ray units were sold in the US, while only 795,000 units were sold on the HD-DVD format during the same period. Unfortunately, the report doesn’t mention what hardware US customers are playing their Blu-ray discs on, but does state that about 2.2m Blu-ray units have been sold to date, compared to 1.5m HD-DVD units.

A spokeswoman for HMR also claimed that sales of the Thermopylae movie 300 has helped boost Blu-ray sales during August, with around 190,000 copies of the movie sold, compared to 97,000 in HD-DVD.

However, this didn’t stop Warner Bros claiming that the film, released in the US during the first week of August, is the fastest selling HD movie to date.

Last month, the Blu-ray Disc Association European Promotions Committee stated that claims made by the European HD DVD Promotion Group that Toshiba HD-DVD players currently account for 74 per cent of European next-gen optical disc players were "misleading", because they excluded PS3 and PC drive sales.