Thanks for the detailed response, Philip.
Regarding your questions…
Does Finder manage to create a preview icon of the file when it is in Column mode? If it does, does it create a preview when in Icon mode?
Yes to both.
What I had to do in the end was install windows on bootcamp, and get ahold of quicktime pro for PC. Then, I attached the drive and quicktime pro was able to open the files that quicktime pro couldn’t open in Mac. Then, I did a “save as” and saved the files with a different name. Obviously, it’s not the ideal fix, but it was the only way I could salvage the files. Luckily it was only 2 files, because the process took an extremely long time.
Film Editor, London UK
http://www.scottclementseditor.com