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Well I did end up buying it but still don't know what it is. It turns out there is a board mounted in between the TV and VCR, but unfortunately it was disconnected and the cabling is missing. One of the connectors on the board is a 6-pin telephone jack, so I think that it was meant to be connected to the Addressable Interface Port on the TV. It probably turned the TV on and off. There is also a video input jack, two RF jacks connected together, the Cat5-style keyboard connector that is accessible from the outside and two other connectors.
The chips on the board were very interesting as well. There was a custom micro controller, a RAM chip, A/D converter connected to the keyboard jack, some logic chips (gates, decoders, counters, flip-flops) and some op-amps. There was also an FM receiver connected to the RF input, a closed caption decoder connected to the video input, a modulator chip (as used in a modem) connected to the RF input and a chip that is normally used in a remote control. There is a Kyocera piezo speaker. I could not quickly determine where the video output of the board was, I will try powering it up and scoping it.
The VCR displayed --:-- but would not turn on (I tried its buttons and every Magnavox and Philips code in my One For All Atlas remote). Upon opening it I found that there were some wires added to it, then cut. My guess is that the remote control chip on the board connected to the infrared remote input on the VCR and maybe the VCR controls were deliberately disabled. The VCR had a copy of To Kill A Mockingbird in it.
The TV turned on with the first Philips code in my remote. It was set to channel 3 and I found that I could change channels, but could not go back to 3 because it was locked out. When I pulled the plug, plugged it in again and turned it on again, it was back on channel 3.
The power supply board was labeled "MED-NET INTERFACE" and the other board was labeled "DU CONTROLLER".
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