diff --git a/src/libprs500/ebooks/chardet/__init__.py b/src/libprs500/ebooks/chardet/__init__.py
index 646686e6fb..83763bca1c 100644
--- a/src/libprs500/ebooks/chardet/__init__.py
+++ b/src/libprs500/ebooks/chardet/__init__.py
@@ -28,13 +28,15 @@ def detect(aBuf):
     return u.result
 
 # Added by Kovid
-def xml_to_unicode(raw):
+def xml_to_unicode(raw, verbose=False):
     '''
     Force conversion of byte string to unicode. Tries to llok for XML/HTML 
     encoding declaration first, if not found uses the chardet library and
     prints a warning if detection confidence is < 100%
     @return: (unicode, encoding used) 
     '''
+    if not raw:
+        return u'', None
     encoding = None
     if isinstance(raw, unicode):
         return raw, encoding
@@ -46,7 +48,7 @@ def xml_to_unicode(raw):
     if encoding is None:
         chardet = detect(raw)
         encoding = chardet['encoding']
-        if chardet['confidence'] < 1:
+        if chardet['confidence'] < 1 and verbose:
             print 'WARNING: Encoding detection confidence %d%%'%(chardet['confidence']*100)
     CHARSET_ALIASES = { "macintosh" : "mac-roman",
                         "x-sjis" : "shift-jis" }
diff --git a/src/libprs500/ebooks/lrf/html/convert_from.py b/src/libprs500/ebooks/lrf/html/convert_from.py
index 584a72b564..02451d7e50 100644
--- a/src/libprs500/ebooks/lrf/html/convert_from.py
+++ b/src/libprs500/ebooks/lrf/html/convert_from.py
@@ -360,7 +360,7 @@ class HTMLConverter(object):
         if self.pdftohtml: # Bug in pdftohtml that causes it to output invalid UTF-8 files
             raw = raw.decode('utf-8', 'ignore')
         else:
-            raw = xml_to_unicode(raw)[0]
+            raw = xml_to_unicode(raw, self.verbose)[0]
         f.close()
         soup = self.preprocess(raw)
         self.logger.info('\tConverting to BBeB...')
diff --git a/src/libprs500/web/fetch/simple.py b/src/libprs500/web/fetch/simple.py
index b03a3d6f1d..cd7bd98f0b 100644
--- a/src/libprs500/web/fetch/simple.py
+++ b/src/libprs500/web/fetch/simple.py
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ from optparse import OptionParser
 from libprs500 import __version__, __appname__, __author__, setup_cli_handlers, \
                       browser, sanitize_file_name
 from libprs500.ebooks.BeautifulSoup import BeautifulSoup
+from libprs500.ebooks.chardet import xml_to_unicode
 
 class FetchError(Exception):
     pass
@@ -58,6 +59,7 @@ class RecursiveFetcher(object):
             os.makedirs(self.base_dir)
         self.default_timeout = socket.getdefaulttimeout()
         socket.setdefaulttimeout(options.timeout)
+        self.verbose = options.verbose
         self.browser = options.browser if hasattr(options, 'browser') else browser()
         self.max_recursions = options.max_recursions
         self.match_regexps  = [re.compile(i, re.IGNORECASE) for i in options.match_regexps]
@@ -77,7 +79,7 @@ class RecursiveFetcher(object):
     def get_soup(self, src):
         nmassage = copy.copy(BeautifulSoup.MARKUP_MASSAGE)
         nmassage.extend(self.preprocess_regexps)
-        return BeautifulSoup(src, markupMassage=nmassage)
+        return BeautifulSoup(xml_to_unicode(src, self.verbose)[0], markupMassage=nmassage)
 
     def fetch_url(self, url):
         f = None
@@ -97,7 +99,7 @@ class RecursiveFetcher(object):
 
         
     def start_fetch(self, url):
-        soup = BeautifulSoup('<a href="'+url+'" />')
+        soup = BeautifulSoup(u'<a href="'+url+'" />')
         self.logger.info('Downloading')
         res = self.process_links(soup, url, 0, into_dir='')
         self.logger.info('%s saved to %s', url, res)