APPLE TV (GEN 2): How to view the movies on my external hard drive?

Hello,

I have a Macbook Pro, with Itunes. I already know how to set-up HOME SHARING with the APPLE TV that allows me to view my Itunes library from my TV.

But on my laptop, with the FRONT ROW feature, I set-up a ALIAS in the movie folder on my computer so that the files from my external hard drive were viewable from the movies folder in FRONT ROW. This great feature now allows me to view my content on my laptop (on Itunes) and the movies on my external hard drive, all on FRONT ROW on the Macbook Pro.

When I opened and set-up the Apple TV (Gen 2), I was surprised that it isn't like FRONT ROW. Instead, it only allows the content on my Itunes to be viewed.

This is a downside because I have only 35 GB free on my internal hard-drive, and all of 350+ GB of movies are on my EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE (Western Digital MY BOOK). Also, the movies files on my external hard drive are .AVI, .M4V, and .MP4

Another question I have is what is the USB port on the back of the APPLE TV for? Can it be used for the external hard drive or no?


Basically, I want to watch all the movies from my external hard drive on my TV.

Can I set this up to happen and how?

If not, what should I do to be able to watch the movies from my computer/external hard drive on my TV?



*Please share as much information as you all can because I need to view all my options (if any) in this situation and I value all the advice....THANK YOU SOOO MUCH! *




EQUIPMENT:

Laptop: MACBOOK PRO 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 4GB 1067 MHZ DDR3 MAC OS X 10.6.6

Apple TV: Gen 2

TV: Vizio 37" HDTV HMDI LCD

External Hard Drive: Western Digital MY BOOK (USB 2.0 + Firewire)