This was during the era before streaming services became the norm, when Netflix was still brand new, they actually started by sending physical discs before launching their streaming service existed. You rent a copy and a disc is sent to your home within a few days but there’s a written letter telling you have to return it by a certain date otherwise they’ll charge extra.
That copy isn’t yours to keep, so what ends up happening during those days were people using blank DVD’s alongside their PC and DVD burning software to pirate the content from movie rentals (also DVDrips existed, but those file sizes are massive during dial up internet being broken up into .VOB / .BUP in a folder or outright converted into an large .ISO file).
It was either DVDrip (.mkv) or literally copying onto a blank DVD. VCD’s are an alternative for compression but sacrifices quality as a CD is designed to hold music rather than video. DVD ripping software exists, but you need heaps of storage on PC to hold those ripped files whilst maintaining their metadata (subtitles, dubbing, dolby / surround) and the file sizes are large.
Even if you have the ripped files, you still needed software to play them (VLC media player) or any proper digital DVD player (as an .ISO file isn’t the same as an .mp4) but nowadays most discs have AACS 2.0 to avert piracy (especially 4K movies and Blu Ray, the file sizes for those are a joke to pirate as they’re over 50 GB in FILE SIZE! like WTF!).
IME, rentals had shit quality, unless you were one of the first few people to rent that movie. Still watchable, mind you, but the software for ripping back then would hang on the mildest errors.
My guess was that most of the high quality torrents back then were ripped by people who bought or stole New-in-box discs, or employees at stores that rented or sold them, an don’t forget Screeners.
Can confirm. For years, my pt night job was working a video store for the free rentals to “make recommendations” to customers. I didn’t have time to watch them all, so I’d rip to watch later, then used certain sites to share. I usually made direct 1:1 copies bc my PC wasn’t well equipped to remix or transcode. Thankfully, I had a school nearby that would offer free used equipment instead of paying for disposal, so I often had extra computers in doing the work on my broadband connection 😅 (I think 1.5-3Mbs).
I did often burn to DVDs as a backup bc external HDDs were expensive and discs were cheap. I did this for years, often releasing online the Friday or Saturday before DVD releases Tuesdays. If only Plex existed back then haha.