It is more resource intensive, but it pushes the problem you mentioned onto tv. If tv doesn't work with embedded EOLs, then you need to fix your data or fix your tool.
Can you give an example of what you mean? If it breaks tv then I would like to add it to the automated tests and see if we can work on it.
No sorry, I assume tv is fine. The problem is in assuming `head -n5` gives you 5 rows and piping that into tv.