US DVD rental company Netflix has posted some promising stats about its hi-def subscription base.

The company has announced that the number of its subscribers using Blu-ray has reached 500,000 in the current quarter.

Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings spoke with journalists about the current number and is confident that Netflix's Blu-ray user base will increase even more soon, saying: "We're optimistic that prices of Blu-ray players are falling."

Double blow

This is good news for the format from a company who recently dealt Blu-ray a double blow, by admitting that Blu-ray will have little effect on business this year and it is to raise the cost of a subscription by $1 to incorporate HD releases.

This change to the price of subscribing is to take place 5 November.