Hmph. Unless I’m mistaken, you should be able to open HDV on your computer. I suspect the editing staff messed up.
Once an edit shop gave me a D1 interlaced clip, but not before scaling it up to 720×540, presumably because graphics guys like me always work in 540. Especially when it’s interlaced. Right.
However, since that’s not a very useful reply, have you looked into HDVxDV?