It's a good topic to join in. I have a Swisscom Bluewin TV-Box, and I'm trying to do with it something else than IPTV, because I don't have access to the service.
I.e. like vambiro said: streaming video, or playing h.264/xvid videos from usb stick, and recording video from external sources.
I'm wondering if something from this is available to do on that set-up box.