I have a first generation apple tv synced to a itunes library on an external USB drive. Movies and Music Won't Play

Here's my setup. First Generation Apple TV. G4 Powermac running OS X 10.5.8 iTunes 10 with the Library stored on an External 3 Terabyte USB 2 drive. It's plugged into a PCI USB 2 card. Everything worked fine till I transferred my iTunes library to the external USB drive. Things seem to sync up fine. I have it set to copy TV shows to the Apple TV's internal drive and that seems to work but when I try to play music or movies that are streaming from the library, I get an error. With movies I get the "The selected video cannot be played. The format was not recognized." error. The movie and music list seems up to date but now it won't play. Did I waste my money on this external drive? How do I get this setup to work?

I don't think this will be a complete answer to your question, but may point you in the right direction.
I have a similar setup (same OS X and iTunes versions), but my library is on a network attached 2TB harddrive (vs a USB 2 drive). Mine works fine, both syncing (which you don't have a problem with) and streaming. It's possible that iTunes doesn't like the USB 2 drive, but I don't know. Are you able to watch TV shows on your PowerMac after having moved the files to the USB drive? If you can watch content on your laptop but not on your AppleTV, it suggests the Apple TV doesn't like the USB drive.
Perhaps you didn't transfer iTunes library content correctly. (Forgive me if I'm telling you things you already know.) The iTunes library consists of a list of content and it's location (local harddrive, network drive, etc.). If you simply moved the files, but didn't actually update the library with the new locations, this can explain why you can't stream the content. The Apple TV displays what is in the library, but cannot play it if the library entry is pointing to the wrong location. Note: This "library update" I'm referring to is not the same as simply changing the iTunes media folder location in iTunes > Preferences > Advanced.
When I moved my content to an external drive, I had to delete everything in my iTunes Library, then re-import everything (File > Add to library). Don't let the phrase "delete everything in my iTunes library" freak you out. Deleting entries in the library is not the same as deleting the files (which you definitely do NOT want to do).
If you select an item in your iTunes library and press the Delete button, it asks for confirmation thus:
Are you sure you want to delete the selected TV show from your iTunes library?
It's OK to answer "Delete TV Show". It will then ask you if you want to delete the file. Do NOT delete the file. You can select your entire library and delete everything at once, just make sure you do NOT delete the files when it asks. When that is done, make sure the iTunes Media Folder Location is set to where you want and that the files are there. Then, go to File, Add to Library and re-import everything. It will take several minutes to more than an hour, depending on the speed of your computer and the size of your library.
I have had to do this everytime I've moved my library to different storage devices. If there is a simpler way, I am not aware of it.
I hope this helps.

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    Message was edited by: williamson42
    Message was edited by: williamson42

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