Consumer spending on home entertainment products, including DVDs, Blu-ray discs and digitally distributed content, in North America fell 8 percent to $4.8 billion in the first quarter of 2010, said the Digital Entertainment Group (DEG) on Wednesday.

The industry trade group, comprising big studios like Walt Disney, Sony Corp and many other technology and media companies, said Blu-ray disc software was a bright spot, with sales up 74 percent in the first quarter to 34 million discs shipped to retail. That latest tally brings the total shipped since the high-definition format's launch in 2006 to 211.2 million discs.

No dollar figures for the Blu-ray category were released.

The group said Blu-ray Disc hardware sales also experienced strong growth, with set-tops up 125 percent from a year ago.

Total rental was down 14 percent as a result of brick-and-mortar store closures by chains like Blockbuster Inc and Movie Gallery Inc, the DEG said.

Digital distribution, including electronic sell-through and video-on-demand, grew a combined 27 percent to $617 million.

(Reporting by Sue Zeidler; Editing by Richard Chang)