If the T.V companies wanted to, could they harm us viewers by broadcasting a really bright image through our industry standard television sets (with the set brightness at a normal comfortable viewing level)?
How about deafening us?
No, they could not harm you that way. Your TV set can go from 0% (black) to 100% (white) and the most they can do is give a white signal. A signal any higher will just result in 100%, not more.
They definitely couldn’t blind you. The phosphors on television screens can’t get that bright, no matter what their input is.
The speakers in most televisions wouldn’t be able to produce a sound loud enough to deafen you either, although I imagine if you routed the audio through a stereo amp and were listening through headphones that you could get a loud enough blast to damage your hearing.
No way. One demonstration of this is that you can watch welding arcs on television with no problem. Watching them with unprotected eyes in real life definitely will blind you. The maximum brightness of any television screen is well below what it would take to blind a normal person. Trust me, if it could happen, morons would be suing television makers like crazy. Ditto for audio. The cheesy little TV speakers would die well before you could sustain serious damage. Home theatre systems built by mad for power guys may be a different story.