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The remote control function for Windows Media Center on iPhone,...

The remote control function for Windows Media Center on iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Phone or Windows 8 won't connect to My Movies for Windows

Issue:

The remote control function on iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Phone or Windows 8 won't connect to My Movies for Windows, either though automatic discovery or though manual adding.

Solution:

There can be different reasons for this problem, ones which we will list below:

My Movies 5 or legacy My Movies for Windows Media Center 4 or later must be installed on your Windows Media Center Host PC.
Automatic discovery requires either iTunes or Bonjour Printing Services (http://support.apple.com/kb/dl999) to be installed on your Windows Media Center Host PC. If you do not want these softwares installed on your PC, you must configure the server manually by entering the IP number of it. Be aware that on DHCP networks, the IP address can change, and the IP number therefore also needs to be reconfigured on your mobile device.
Automatic discovery is not currently supported on Windows Phone.
You network must be configured as a "Home network" or "Work network", and not as a "Public network". My Movies for Windows creates firewall exceptions for the remote server into the Windows Firewall, allowing the mobile device to connect to it, and these exceptions are not available on public networks. You can check the status of your network in "Control Panel", "Network and Sharing Center".
Your mobile devices must be connected to the same wireless router or wireless network as the host PC. You may have a router configured used to connect to the internet, which is not at the same time running your wireless network, and instead of having a wireless access point, you may have another router functioning as wireless access point - this is technically another network, and therefore it will block connections to devices on the primary network.
You cannot connect manually to your Host PC by it's network name - you must either manually connect using the IP address, or use the automatic discovery.
There can be problems using automatic discovery on iPhone or iPad if Bluetooth is enabled on your device, due to a problem with iOS where Bluetooth and Bonjour which is used for automatic discovery can interfear.
My Movies for Windows creates firewall exceptions for your host PC and up to five extenders only. If you have more than five extenders, or your extenders are configured as having a higher connection number than 5, the mobile device will be unable to connect to it.
If you are using domains instead of workgroups in your networking setup, you must manually configure the firewall exceptions for ports 51408 through 51414. My Movies for Windows creates firewall exceptions into the Windows Firewall, but these are not added for domain usage.