As of Dec. 1, the $1 DVD rental at Redbox will be a thing of the past.

There's absolutely no excuse for paying for a movie rental these days.

Here are yet two more codes for free $1 rentals at Blockbuster Express movie kiosks:

26KBDJ5
25NCRP6

Both expire Monday on the Fourth of July.

The DVD kiosk war is escalating in the Triangle.

NCR announced today that it has installed its Blockbuster Express kiosks in more than 800 Food Lion grocery stores in 11 states, including more than 50 across the Triangle. There are also Blockbuster Express kiosks in local Kerr Drug, Rite Aid and Sheetz stores.

They compete for consumers' attention with Redbox kiosks, which are in Lowes Food, CVS, Harris Teeter, Walmart and other spots. Every Redbox is assembled in a huge Creedmoor factory, about 30 miles north of Raleigh.

The race to install kiosks comes as Blockbuster has closed more of its local stores, limiting options for traditional DVD rentals. The market has shifted to kiosks and to online rentals, an industry dominated by Netflix.

To promote its Food Lion connection, NCR is offering a free first night's rental of $1-per-night movies through June 17. Blockbuster Express customers should enter the promo FOODLION.

Bankrupt video-rental chain Blockbuster continues to reduce its retail footprint in the Triangle.

The stores in Garner and Clayton rented their last DVDs last week, staff writer Colin Campbell reports. The locations are holding liquidation sales before they close for good in April.

The Blockbuster in Raleigh's Mission Valley closed last week, and other closures are likely.

The chain filed for bankruptcy protection last fall amid mounting debt, consumers shifting to online rentals and increasing competition from rivals such as Netflix and the $1-per-night Redbox kiosks.

Blockbuster, the world's biggest movie-rental chain, filed for bankruptcy protection this morning.

The long-anticipated move was prearranged with bondholders and will allow the Dallas-based company to reorganize and reduce its massive debt.

Blockbuster, which has 20 locations in the Triangle, said its 3,000 stores in the U.S., DVD vending kiosks, by-mail and digital businesses will all continue to operate normally. In this region, Blockbuster Express is installing its kiosks in retailers such as Kerr Drug, Sheetz and Rite Aid.

Still, filing for bankruptcy "will enable (Blockbuster) to break the leases" on its stores, Kenneth Latz, director of the New York office of financial restructuring firm Conway MacKenzie, told USA Today.

Redbox plans to roll out its DVD rental kiosks in thousands of CVS locations nationwide.

The companies announced a deal to install the $1-per-night  DVD machines in about 700 CVS stores by the end of the year, and many more by the end of 2011.

And every one is assembled in a huge Creedmoor factory, about 30 miles north of Raleigh. That plant, run by contract manufacturer Flextronics, employs about 255 people and in May threw a lunch party to celebrate shipping the 25,000 Redbox.