Tvheadend

Hi all,

I've noticed a behavior across many version of tvheadend, in that, if the kernel driver panics, tvheadend itself becomes unresponsive, so cannot access my recordings. Need to physically reboot the box in order to get the dvb tuner functioning again.
Is this a know issue? Has anyone seen something similar?

I'm using a Sony PlayTV dual tuner (usb), but have seen this issue with other tuners too.
I'm currently on Ubuntu 16.04 (x64), but have had this happen on older version too.