I was having a really hard time finding EFC code lists for this remote. Do they even exist? I searched the net and the JP1 forum file section for quite some time, and never succeeded in finding 5-digit EFC code lists that were compatible with the Acoustic Research/RCA remote and my machines. (Specifically, the Marantz CD-53 CD player, which operates on the 0157 code on the Cinema remote, and the Sony STR-K760P A/V receiver (RM-PP760 remote) which works with the 1058 device code on the AR remote).

OTOH, maybe they're not necessary. I can't recall anymore, but I thought I might have read that EFC's take the same amount of memory as learned codes, and in the same memory bank. In which case, it wouldn't matter how the remote was programmed, if its going to get full just as fast with the EFC method.

RE: JP1. Yeah, I've been aware of the JP1 hack for about 12 years now, but I've never needed it. I've always been able to stuff everything I needed into the OFA remotes. That's even still the case with this $10 5-in-1 AR remote (made by guess who...). Besides investing 3 times the price of the remote for the JP1 hack, JP1 requires a large investment in time to learn the ins and outs of it, so I don't wish to make a hobby out of a remote that is not even mine. I bought the AR for my GF, only because it was dirt cheap, and I thought it looked sexier than the Cinema 7 I already got and programmed for her. She doesn't care, she's fine with either.

Myself, I've got a Harmony 880 waiting for me to learn the ins and outs of. I don't find it practical any more to use remotes where you have to guess where the advanced functions are (or try to find the paper you wrote them on), and live with mislabelled buttons you programmed custom functions to. I want a smarter remote, that people can pick up and work the equipment with it, without having to be a remote control geek (like myself) to use it. So I'm opting for something with a screen, that can show button labels. Hopefully, the Harmony will do everything the well-loved OFA-based remotes can.

If I could build my own JP1 cable out of spare computer parts that I have lying around (I have IDE/USB/parallel/serial cables...), then that might be an option I'd want to try on the AR remote. Just to see if it would work, and be useful. But if it requires special parts I have to order (ie. PCB board, chips or resistors), it'd be more trouble than its worth, for this remote. And it'd be redundant on the Harmony's.