diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/plugins/pdf_input.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/plugins/pdf_input.py
index 08cb2d0154..3bbe33207d 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/plugins/pdf_input.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/plugins/pdf_input.py
@@ -27,19 +27,16 @@ class PDFInput(InputFormatPlugin):
     ])
 
     def convert_new(self, stream, accelerators):
-        from calibre.constants import plugins
-        pdfreflow, pdfreflow_err = plugins['pdfreflow']
-
-        from calibre.ebooks.pdf.reflow import PDFDocument
+        from calibre.ebooks.pdf.pdftohtml import pdftohtml
         from calibre.utils.cleantext import clean_ascii_chars
-        if pdfreflow_err:
-            raise RuntimeError('Failed to load pdfreflow: ' + pdfreflow_err)
-        pdfreflow.reflow(stream.read(), 1, -1)
-        xml = clean_ascii_chars(open(u'index.xml', 'rb').read())
+        from calibre.ebooks.pdf.reflow import PDFDocument
+
+        pdftohtml(os.getcwdu(), stream.name, self.opts.no_images, as_xml=True)
+        with open(u'index.xml', 'rb') as f:
+            xml = clean_ascii_chars(f.read())
         PDFDocument(xml, self.opts, self.log)
         return os.path.join(os.getcwdu(), u'metadata.opf')
 
-
     def convert(self, stream, options, file_ext, log,
                 accelerators):
         from calibre.ebooks.metadata.opf2 import OPFCreator
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/pdf/pdftohtml.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/pdf/pdftohtml.py
index 7c5e852b24..ca950b84b2 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/pdf/pdftohtml.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/pdf/pdftohtml.py
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ if iswindows and hasattr(sys, 'frozen'):
 if (islinux or isbsd) and getattr(sys, 'frozen', False):
     PDFTOHTML = os.path.join(sys.executables_location, 'bin', 'pdftohtml')
 
-def pdftohtml(output_dir, pdf_path, no_images):
+def pdftohtml(output_dir, pdf_path, no_images, as_xml=False):
     '''
     Convert the pdf into html using the pdftohtml app.
     This will write the html as index.html into output_dir.
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ def pdftohtml(output_dir, pdf_path, no_images):
     '''
 
     pdfsrc = os.path.join(output_dir, u'src.pdf')
-    index = os.path.join(output_dir, u'index.html')
+    index = os.path.join(output_dir, u'index.'+('xml' if as_xml else 'html'))
 
     with open(pdf_path, 'rb') as src, open(pdfsrc, 'wb') as dest:
         shutil.copyfileobj(src, dest)
@@ -58,6 +58,8 @@ def pdftohtml(output_dir, pdf_path, no_images):
             cmd.remove(b'-nodrm')
         if no_images:
             cmd.append(b'-i')
+        if as_xml:
+            cmd.append('-xml')
 
         logf = PersistentTemporaryFile(u'pdftohtml_log')
         try:
@@ -94,15 +96,16 @@ def pdftohtml(output_dir, pdf_path, no_images):
         if not os.path.exists(index) or os.stat(index).st_size < 100:
             raise DRMError()
 
-        with open(index, 'r+b') as i:
-            raw = i.read()
-            raw = flip_images(raw)
-            raw = '<!-- created by calibre\'s pdftohtml -->\n' + raw
-            i.seek(0)
-            i.truncate()
-            # versions of pdftohtml >= 0.20 output self closing <br> tags, this
-            # breaks the pdf heuristics regexps, so replace them
-            i.write(raw.replace(b'<br/>', b'<br>'))
+        if not as_xml:
+            with open(index, 'r+b') as i:
+                raw = i.read()
+                raw = flip_images(raw)
+                raw = '<!-- created by calibre\'s pdftohtml -->\n' + raw
+                i.seek(0)
+                i.truncate()
+                # versions of pdftohtml >= 0.20 output self closing <br> tags, this
+                # breaks the pdf heuristics regexps, so replace them
+                i.write(raw.replace(b'<br/>', b'<br>'))
 
 def flip_image(img, flip):
     from calibre.utils.magick import Image