diff --git a/scour/scour.py b/scour/scour.py
index a62ee58..cb2d386 100644
--- a/scour/scour.py
+++ b/scour/scour.py
@@ -3239,11 +3239,20 @@ def parse_args(args=None, ignore_additional_args=False):
       # GZ: could catch a raised IOError here and report
    else:
       # GZ: could sniff for gzip compression here
-      infile = sys.stdin
+      #
+      # open the binary buffer of stdin and let XML parser handle decoding
+      try:
+        infile = sys.stdin.buffer
+      except AttributeError:
+        infile = sys.stdin
    if options.outfilename:
       outfile = maybe_gziped_file(options.outfilename, "wb")
    else:
-      outfile = sys.stdout
+      # open the binary buffer of stdout as the output is already encoded
+      try:
+         outfile = sys.stdout.buffer
+      except AttributeError:
+         outfile = sys.stdout
 
    return options, [infile, outfile]