Yes, though you can do better than is commonly claimed: You can make use of known properties to improve the picture/extraction as you aren't taking pictures of

Yes, though you can do better than is commonly claimed: You can make use of known properties to improve the picture/extraction as you aren't taking pictures of random data. You can improve resolution with multiple frames, having video gives you a lot more info. You can extract even with very low resolution in limited cases, getting number plates for example. Very limited possible inputs (one font, known character, limited combinations) mean you can find a closest match more easily. Of course some TV things are silly, but sometimes they're also far worse than we can actually do.