I've taken several TVs apart over the years and the IR receiver is generally located on a tiny circuit board with the switches (or the one and only switch on newer TVs) and power light/LED. You may be able to get a part number off of it and find a replacement on ebay or you can try to just replace the IR photodiode (receiver) that's a small 2-pin device. You can probably find them on Amazon or for pennies from China. If you're really ambitious, you could even test the one that's in there now.
Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it.
