PVRec is a Gambas-based applet that captures MPEG-2 stream from the pvrusb driver in a straightforward manner.
At its core, PVRec is a Graphical User Interface (GUI), comprising of only three pipes. In case you have difficulties capturing video using the software, such as encountering a blank mplayer window or mplayer failing to come up altogether, or the bytes received counter not increasing, you may want to try the following workaround: cat /dev/usb/lp0 >myvideo.mpg. If this approach fails to work, then it is highly likely that the problem lies with the driver or the PVR USB gadget itself.
PVRec's current version is 0.1, and it requires Gambas, which is available for Debian and its derivatives. The pvrusb driver can be obtained directly from the source as needed. Nevertheless, if you intend to view the video while capturing it, you'd also require mplayer, for which you may want to look for a pre-built binary package for your specific Linux distribution, or alternatively, try building it from source. Overall, PVRec is a handy software intended primarily for screen recording and easy accessibility, and it performs quite well in its current state.
Version 0.10: N/A