Your other threads are still there:
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,118129.0.html In this one you said: "if I launch MC in GUI mode and exit (server still running), the hotkeys are "stolen" by the server again."
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,118393.0.html In this one you said: "However, as soon a I launch MC as desktop app (after having stopped Qobuz), MC is no longer able to catch the hotkeys."
The easiest way to find your posts is to open your Profile from the above forum menu, and then select "Show Posts". The same can be done by opening any forum member's Profile.
Now you are saying:
But, as already stated twice :-), if I then open MC as GUI (other players being closed), with the MC DLNA server still active, MC GUI does not execute the hotkeys (unless it has the focus).
The "correct"/expected behaviour, imho, would be to not consume the hotkeys when running as server only, but to consume them if the GUI is running.
The bold text above is the first time you have mentioned that your media keys work when MC is
in focus. I thought you were saying that the Media Keys didn't work at all.
There was a lot of discussion about when Media Keys should work with MC some time back. I think in the end consensus was that they should only work with the GUI when the GUI was in focus, unless the Media Server was running and it was set to translate hot keys, in which case it was the Media Server that was doing that task. In other words, MC is doing what it is supposed to do, by design.
By all means search the forum for the discussion. Perhaps search for "Focus" or "in focus" to find it, or "Translate Hot Keys when running as Media Server", as I could be wrong about the consensus.
What you're looking for is what Windows Media Player does, which is capture and use all Media Keys whether it is the application in focus or not. Well, that has issues. For example, if Windows Media Player is running at all, even if MC is in focus, WMP captures media hot keys and uses them, blocking them from MC. I just confirmed that. I had to close WMP to get media keys to work with MC even when it was in focus, and regardless of the Media Key Mode set in MC.
So if MC was supposed to capture all Media Keys even when it was in focus, and WMP does the same thing, if both were running, which application should start playing media?
If you had Qobuz player running in the foreground, and forgot to close MC, perhaps having minimised it, which application should process the Media Keys?
MC is being a good computer citizen and not capturing Media Keys when it isn't in focus. It is a compromise, so that MC works best with other applications.
Mind you, I'm not sure what the Media key mode setting of "Hot Keys" is exactly supposed to do. I haven't looked that up. Perhaps there is something in the Wiki or Forum. I'll leave that to you.
Regardless, I don't believe this is a bug. MC is working as per design, achieved by consensus after discussion.