Quality of IR Leds in remote controls?

There has been a great deal spoken about the medicinal vlaue of IR LEDS at 880nm.
Would this be in the visible spectrum or true IR? Some of the articles I have read seem to use a visible spectrum colour?

We are in a business that collects a great deal of used television and satellite decoder IR remote controls. What wavelength would these typically be and at what voltages should they be driven to get the most out of them?

Would they be any good for anything else? Would the only way to see if they are working be to look at them through a video camera at night?

Streak

Normally, the LEDs used in IR remote controls are the older and cheaper 940 nm GaAs types (gray-blue epoxy lens). The better ones are the translucent GaAlAs ones (more powerfull).
These can be either 880 or 940 nm.
If you drive them at their normal ratings (1.7 V, 50 mA), the 880 nm ones will emit a faint deep red glow and the 940 nm ones are totally invisible.
Hope this helps!