Should I be converting the files or something?

Not much to go on here, you dont normaly need to convert the video file, youtube does it for you when uploaded.

If the file is unsupported, convert to somthing more general (mpeg,avi,mp4)

try reading the youtube help section.

Is it normal to take hours to upload a video?

Is it normal to take hours to upload a video?

Well, that would depend on how large your original file is. :)

The longest part of the process is the uploaded video getting converted to YouTube's official format, which can indeed take hours... depending on length, filesize, codec conversion, number of other people doing the same thing at the same time, you name it.

Don't panic.