diff --git a/contrib/hldiff.py b/contrib/hldiff.py
index 9c81663..5f660fd 100755
--- a/contrib/hldiff.py
+++ b/contrib/hldiff.py
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ ansi_escape = re.compile(r'\x1B\[[0-?]*[ -/]*[@-~]')
 stat_re = re.compile(r'(| \d+ )(\+*)(\-*)')
 lines_re = re.compile(r'@@ (-\d+,\d+ \+\d+,\d+) @@')
 
+sys.stdin.reconfigure(encoding='utf-8', errors='ignore')
 patch = sys.stdin.read().replace("\r\n", "\n")
 patch = ansi_escape.sub('', patch)
 
diff --git a/contrib/plaintext.py b/contrib/plaintext.py
index 3a32679..522055b 100755
--- a/contrib/plaintext.py
+++ b/contrib/plaintext.py
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ ansi_escape = re.compile(r'\x1B\[[0-?]*[ -/]*[@-~]')
 quote_prefix_re = re.compile(r"On .*, .* wrote:")
 quote_re = re.compile(r">+")
 
+sys.stdin.reconfigure(encoding='utf-8', errors='ignore')
 mail = sys.stdin.read().replace("\r\n", "\n")
 mail = ansi_escape.sub('', mail)