We are using PhoneGap/Cordova 1.8.1 (Android) with the latest version of the ChildBrowser plugin. When we bring up a link to youtube in the ChildBrowser, we generally cannot play any videos. Here is our testing so far:
Android 2 (old Droid 1): Mobile YouTube site comes up, no videos will play at all though (doesn’t even switch to video mode).
Android 4 (Motorola Xoom): Mobile site comes up, video seems like it is playing, but only shows a black screen (no sound);
Android 4 (Droid Razr Maxx): Mobile site comes up, plays, but no video only sound.
We also had someone report with an Android 2 device that the video would play, but would change the orientation of the device from portrait to landscape – then upon going back to the app the app would stay fixed in landscape (even though it is set to portrait only).
Yes, you should use the ChildBrowser.openExternal on Android as it will start the Android browser which you can play YouTube video’s. The ChildBrowser.showWebPage does not start the browser, instead it creates it’s own web view to display the remote side so it is not full featured.