Well yes, that would be normal for that time.The DVD player was manufactured September 1999. I know this because I still have it (and it still works!) It has both S-Video and RGB video output and S/PDIF optical output as well as coaxial digital audio output!
Right, they'd been standard long before 2000 -- since VCR days -- but for some reason you called them 'non standard' at first.On the other hand, my TV had inputs only for antenna and composite video with L/R RCA audio. In 2000, those connections were "standard" on new TVs.
One of the big challenges we have on ASR is that there are many people here who have owned high-end equipment for decades even when a CD player cost more than a car.
That's an exaggeration. There were always new CDPs that cost less than the cheapest new cars. DVDPs started as high as >$1000 at the very beginning (1997) but rapidly came down in price. You could get one for <$100 by 2000.
Again, I lived through this era you talk about. I bought my first stereo (japanese receiver + EPI 100 bookshelfs) as a teen in 1977. I was a grad student/postdoc in the 1990s...far from wealthy. I'm sure there are plenty here who remember owning mass market gear, like I do
People who have been into audio and video for decades, even without sites like ASR, managed to avoid the worst of the equipment out there and don't realize just how bad the average setup was.
Any setup that included digital audio was already an improvement sound-wise compared to the pre-digital era.