I tried to make a Windows Media Player remoting application in C++ with the help of this guide: Remoting the Windows Media Player Control. However, even if I return "Remote" in the GetServiceType method, the Windows Media Player instance appears to be running like a "Local" one, as if it is a separate instance, so it doesn't share playback engine with the main WMP but rather its like running on its own.
I have already saw some complete source code related to this (i.e. https://github.com/.../PlayerWMP.cpp) but somehow, my "Remote" WMP always seem to run like a "Local" one.
I have confirmed that my IServiceProvider::QueryService and IWMPRemoteMediaServices::GetServiceType implementations are getting called so remoting should be properly set up already, and again, issue is not that I cannot host the ActiveX object, issue is that is not able to remote the main WMP instance
finally figured something out after days, well at least for Windows 7, WMP remoting doesn't work if the remoting app is running as admin, regardless if WMP is running as admin or not, it just doesn't seem to work. The sample apps I have also worked same way but I was not able to see their common denominator until now. I also don't see any posts over the internet regarding this. I know this is not complete/real answer but I hope this may be able to help some other people as well