This was during an era where VHS was standard and DVD’s were just brand new at the time (before streaming sites existed). Chains like Blockbuster were booming back then with people renting movies or even TV shows for a fee but have to return them by an expected date, what happens is that in order to “keep” a copy, people would use a PC with disc burning software to burn the contents from that DVD onto a blank one.
Know those blank white DVDs? Basically those were used on storing a “pirated” disc for themselves before returning the rented copy back at the video rental store. When I was a kid, I remember encountering what clearly a pirated copy of The Prince of Egypt (so who ever pirated it kept the rented copy) since the disc art is crappy & low quality (it’s been printed then glued onto a blank DVD used for copying upon peeling it off).
We were friends with a family that had a satellite dish (think like a huge ass monstrosity that was almost as big as the house out in the backyard, not those direct TV small ones on the side of a house that came much later). They had the US movie channels, so they would plow I think it was generally about 3 movies on a tape, and then you’d just take that tape home and we had a couple vcrs at this point, and you’d just rca cable them together, one played and one recorded. And you were the king of the neighbourhood, because you often had movies well before the rental store had them, they’d often still be in theatres.
Those were the days. I had a 12 foot paraclypse c-band satellite dish. That thing would pick up everything.