diff --git a/lib/git_stats/git_data/blob.rb b/lib/git_stats/git_data/blob.rb
index e824d98f9..3001a2aa2 100644
--- a/lib/git_stats/git_data/blob.rb
+++ b/lib/git_stats/git_data/blob.rb
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ module GitStats
       end
 
       def binary?
-        repo.run("git cat-file blob #{self.sha} | grep -m 1 '^'") =~ /Binary file/
+        repo.run("git cat-file blob #{self.sha} | grep -m 1 '^'").force_encoding('ISO-8859-1').encode('utf-8', replace: nil) =~ /Binary file/
       end
 
       def to_s