I fixed my VR-507. It seems the only issue is some cracked solder on the pins that come through the curcuit board for the IR mechanism. I have a friend who is handy with such things and he soldered them right up for me and fixed the problem rather permanently. I can now resume my proper couch potato stance.

We took a picture of the circuit board. If anyone is interested, I can whip a quick web page together with instructions on what to do.

Andy