PostgreSQL Dump based backup using pipe

Hi
We were using named pipe to read dump data from 'pg_dump -Fc' (compressed
format) on Windows.
Restore was failing with 'corrupt dump data' error.
Later found that pg_dump was performing 'illegal seek' on pipe to write the
data, which was causing corrupt dump.

I've two questions.

1. With tar format ( -Ft ) I see that data is written in serial fashion so
we are planning to switched to this format.
Is it safe to use name pipe to read from 'pg_dump -Ft' (tar format) ?

2. On Linux also from strace output of 'pg_dump -Fc' (compressed dump) used
with fifo file, I see 'illegal seek' performed on fifo file too.
But restore doesn't have any issues. Is it safe to use 'pg_dump -Fc' with
output file as fifo on Linux ?

Thanks
Girish