By the 90s the typical American household already had > 2 TVs. Two VCRs would not be that uncommon. It was common enough active measures were taken to prevent copying (as you linked). After all, VHS tapes are rewritable and quite durable. If you don't mind minor degredation you can reuse them dozens of times, or more. People would accumulate dozens (if not hundreds) of VHS tapes over the years with stuff they didn't want to keep anymore. So spare media wasn't usually an issue.
Now, I don't recall all that many copied rental movies, growing up. I do recall a lot of films off TV being recorded and passed around and even duplicated, though. Knowing someone with cable or satellite TV who was reliable in hitting pause/record during the commercials was Important.
I mean, just based off personal recollection, 2 VCRs was rarer than two TVs, since the second TV would be a small 15 inch in the kitchen permanently tuned to the Andy Griffith show or an old TV in the garage for football games.
But I’m sure there are some trade organizations stats about all this somewhere. And yes, I know people who had huge catalogs of movies recorded off TV (on beta lol).
> I mean, just based off personal recollection, 2 VCRs was rarer than two TVs, since the second TV would be a small 15 inch in the kitchen permanently tuned to the Andy Griffith show or an old TV in the garage for football games.
This is accurate, though by the early 90s some houses had three TVs. The third kind was the one from the late 70s or early 80s that'd recently been replaced by a new "main" TV, which older TV sat in a spare bedroom or basement "rec room" and you had to hit it sometimes to keep it working.
Now, I don't recall all that many copied rental movies, growing up. I do recall a lot of films off TV being recorded and passed around and even duplicated, though. Knowing someone with cable or satellite TV who was reliable in hitting pause/record during the commercials was Important.