Can't convert Kona QT in Windows

We have hard drive from a production facility with tons of Quicktimes captured in Final Cut using Kona hardware. The editor at the facility was unsure of which Kona model or version of Final Cut. He did say the system was a year old and the capture was done in June 2007, which is what shows on the date/timestamp of the files.

We're a PC shop using several VelocityQ's and Premiere CS3. The problem is we can open, play and convert some of the files, but others we cannot. More bizarre is that one group of files from a project captured during one session (you can tell from the date/timestamp on the file) will open, play and convert fine...while another group from the same project captured later that day or the next day will not open, play or convert in anything.

The files that will open show that the codec is Kona V2.10 or something like that. We have installed the latest Kona windows codecs from their site, but no joy on the offending files. Even more bizarre...we uninstalled the Kona codec, then installed the blackmagic codecs, and we got the same results!

This occurs across multiple Windows PC's using IBM intellistations, HP xw series PC's, and across a variety of hardware (some have Harris Quattrus cards in them, some have Blackmagic Decklink cards, one system doesn't have any capture hardware). All the systems also have various versions of Quicktime, with one machine having 7.1.xx, a couple 7.2 and a couple others the latest version from Apple's website.

No matter what...we get the same problem. Trying to load the problem files into Quicktime just locks it up. Trying to load them into AE (both 7.0 and CS3) results in nothing happening. QT and AE will both load, play and convert the other "good" files fine. There are hundreds of files on this drive..and roughly 70% we can open and convert fine...the others we cannot.

Even MORE bizarre is a generic media player called KM Player, WILL open and play the problem files, which kind of rules out any corruption in the files themselves. But it will only play them if the Blackmagic codec is installed on the machine. If you remove the Blackmagic codecs and just leave the Kona codecs....even KM Player won't load or play the offending quicktimes.

Does anybody have any suggestions? The editor swore he captured all the files using the same codec, project dimensions, capture rates etc. But we're not so sure, as some load into AE showing they're 640x480 DVCPro50, and the rest load showing they're 720x486 Kona files. Some of the offending files show they were captured perhaps 30 minutes later (in a batch) than large groups of good files captured in an earlier batch.

We convert Quicktimes all the time, from Avid based files to Blackmagic, but I've never seen this issue. Any help is appreciated.

Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
www.videomi.com