diff --git a/QA/QA_Common/lib/hdf5_io.py b/QA/QA_Common/lib/hdf5_io.py
index 87a02c449603a9a57122fff6c6419e3e8a6a4864..ec1814dbfb1c5c02a3fc4b7f002de2c66b716119 100644
--- a/QA/QA_Common/lib/hdf5_io.py
+++ b/QA/QA_Common/lib/hdf5_io.py
@@ -661,7 +661,8 @@ def combine_hypercubes(input_paths, output_dir, output_filename=None, do_compres
         if len(versions) != 1:
             raise ValueError('Cannot combine h5 files of multiple versions: %s' % (', '.join(versions),))
 
-        version_str = list(versions)[0]
+        versions = [v.decode('utf-8') if isinstance(v, bytes) else v for v in versions]
+        version_str = versions[0]
 
         if version_str != '1.4':
             raise ValueError('Cannot read version %s' % (version_str,))