@@ -308,6 +308,6 @@ def register_surrogateescape():
 
 
 try:
-    "hello".decode(defenc, "surrogateescape")
+    b"100644 \x9f\0aaa".decode(defenc, "surrogateescape")
 except:
     register_surrogateescape()
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 from stat import S_ISDIR
 from git.compat import (
     byte_ord,
+    safe_decode,
     defenc,
     xrange,
     text_type,
@@ -76,7 +77,7 @@ def tree_entries_from_data(data):
         # default encoding for strings in git is utf8
         # Only use the respective unicode object if the byte stream was encoded
         name = data[ns:i]
-        name = name.decode(defenc, 'surrogateescape')
+        name = safe_decode(name)
 
         # byte is NULL, get next 20
         i += 1
 
@@ -16,7 +16,9 @@
 from gitdb.util import bin_to_hex
 from gitdb.base import IStream
 from gitdb.typ import str_tree_type
+from git.compat import PY3
 
+from unittest.case import skipIf
 from stat import (
     S_IFDIR,
     S_IFREG,
@@ -256,6 +258,12 @@ def test_tree_traversal_single(self):
             assert entries
         # END for each commit
 
-    def test_tree_entries_from_data_with_failing_name_decode(self):
+    @skipIf(PY3, 'odd types returned ... maybe figure it out one day')
+    def test_tree_entries_from_data_with_failing_name_decode_py2(self):
         r = tree_entries_from_data(b'100644 \x9f\0aaa')
-        assert r == [(b'aaa', 33188, b'\x9f')], r
+        assert r == [('aaa', 33188, u'\udc9f')], r
+        
+    @skipIf(not PY3, 'odd types returned ... maybe figure it out one day')
+    def test_tree_entries_from_data_with_failing_name_decode_py3(self):
+        r = tree_entries_from_data(b'100644 \x9f\0aaa')
+        assert r == [(b'aaa', 33188, '\udc9f')], r