Baloo, I can assure you that this issue will come up time and time again. Shared server hosts will allow UNA to be installed - then when the configuration is wrong or their limit filters stop the video conversion process - they will just direct the client to the Sales Dept. in order to purchase a pricy Dedicated Server or VPS. 

If a particular UNA community is small - and many will be, would it be possible just to process the video oneself and not wait for hours or days?

A very likely scenario is for a user to upload a video, then when it does not appear within a reasonable time, the frustrated user will upload it again and again. Further complicating things.

It would be much better to inform the user on the upload screen that the video file was completely uploaded and that the moderator will convert it manually. True, this would not be the solution for larger communities. But these should not be on a shared server anyway.

I would love to hear about a shared hosting service which will allow UNA to process videos within minutes - not hours or days. So far, I have found several which will not - even though they install it for the client on their speedy ssd drives.

OP