HD media player with 3.5-inch external drive

[sir_peter]

I want to buy a HD media player (either a WD or Asus)
My question is that will a external 3.5inch hard drive work on the media player?
The 3.5inch drives come with built-in programs & i know we can disable it but it causes a lot of problems (i read many user reviews on cnet & amazon)
So can anyone who has such a setup clarify my doubts?
Also, is the usb 2.0 (480 Mbits/sec) speed/BW enough to play 1080p movies?? (i read about stuttering problems on various other sites)
it's a bit urgent..

3.5inch drives:
Seagate Free Agent 500GB 3.5-inch USB External Portable Hard Disk Drive
WD My Book Essential 500GB

 

[sub]

Hi

I have recently purchased a WD TV and am using it with seagate freeagent 3.5 500gb external HDD only and it works perfectly without any stuttering problem via USB 2.0 for all my 1080p movies.

Regards

sub

Video: Panny 32 LCD, PS3, Sony DVP-NS78H, Samsung DVD-P365H, WD TV, Big Tv.
Audio: Yamaha RX-V661, Sansui G-5000, Hand made Towers, Pioneer Linear Power speakers with Onkyo SL-107 powered sub.

 

[sir_peter]

Hi

I have recently purchased a WD TV and am using it with seagate freeagent 3.5 500gb external HDD only and it works perfectly without any stuttering problem via USB 2.0 for all my 1080p movies.

Regards

sub

Video: Panny 32 LCD, PS3, Sony DVP-NS78H, Samsung DVD-P365H, WD TV, Big Tv.
Audio: Yamaha RX-V661, Sansui G-5000, Hand made Towers, Pioneer Linear Power speakers with Onkyo SL-107 powered sub.

Thanks for the info sub.
one more thing- is the picture quality of big tv better than tata sky plus?