diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf2xml/check_encoding.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf2xml/check_encoding.py
index ae512fa68a..7a7b842db6 100755
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf2xml/check_encoding.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf2xml/check_encoding.py
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ class CheckEncoding:
                 sys.stderr.write(_('line: %s char: %s\n') %  (line_num, char_position))
                 sys.stderr.write(str(msg) + '\n')
 
-    def check_encoding(self, path, encoding='us-ascii'):
+    def check_encoding(self, path, encoding='us-ascii', verbose = True):
         line_num = 0
         with open(path, 'r') as read_obj:
             for line in read_obj:
@@ -24,10 +24,11 @@ class CheckEncoding:
                 try:
                     line.decode(encoding)
                 except UnicodeError:
-                    if len(line) < 1000:
-                        self.__get_position_error(line, encoding, line_num)
-                    else:
-                        sys.stderr.write(_('line: %d has bad encoding\n') % line_num)
+                    if verbose:
+                        if len(line) < 1000:
+                            self.__get_position_error(line, encoding, line_num)
+                        else:
+                            sys.stderr.write(_('line: %d has bad encoding\n') % line_num)
                     return True
         return False
 
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf2xml/convert_to_tags.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf2xml/convert_to_tags.py
index 6563d2e982..67689eb2d1 100755
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf2xml/convert_to_tags.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf2xml/convert_to_tags.py
@@ -210,7 +210,7 @@ class ConvertToTags:
         check_encoding_obj = check_encoding.CheckEncoding(
                     bug_handler = self.__bug_handler,
                         )
-        if not check_encoding_obj.check_encoding(self.__file):
+        if not check_encoding_obj.check_encoding(self.__file, verbose = False):
             self.__write_obj.write('<?xml version="1.0" encoding="US-ASCII" ?>')
         elif not check_encoding_obj.check_encoding(self.__file, self.__encoding):
             self.__write_obj.write('<?xml version="1.0" encoding="%s" ?>' % self.__encoding)