287 hard drive to play through tv not computer

Hello,

Since the drive is working properly on the computer, make sure that you TV is capable of detecting the file format that you put on the drive.

Did you formatted the drive on HFS+ or FAT32?

Regarding the  Set Top Box, some of then will require an specific configuration for the USB device that you are connecting. Also some of then will format the drive to make it compatible with the unit.