diff --git a/pywb/rewrite/html_rewriter.py b/pywb/rewrite/html_rewriter.py
index d4a2619b..08b1e997 100644
--- a/pywb/rewrite/html_rewriter.py
+++ b/pywb/rewrite/html_rewriter.py
@@ -68,10 +68,10 @@ class HTMLRewriterMixin(object):
             self.ls = []
 
         def write(self, string):
-            self.ls.append(string)
+            self.ls.append(bytes(string))
 
         def getvalue(self):
-            return ''.join(self.ls)
+            return b''.join(self.ls)
 
     # ===========================
     def __init__(self, url_rewriter,
diff --git a/pywb/rewrite/lxml_html_rewriter.py b/pywb/rewrite/lxml_html_rewriter.py
index 29355be4..651e9ba4 100644
--- a/pywb/rewrite/lxml_html_rewriter.py
+++ b/pywb/rewrite/lxml_html_rewriter.py
@@ -34,8 +34,8 @@ class LXMLHTMLRewriter(HTMLRewriterMixin):
 
     def feed(self, string):
         self.started = True
-        string = self.END_HTML.sub(u'', string)
-        #string = string.replace(u'</html>', u'')
+        string = self.END_HTML.sub(b'', string)
+        #string = string.replace(b'</html>', b'')
         self.parser.feed(string)
 
     def parse(self, stream):
@@ -64,47 +64,48 @@ class RewriterTarget(object):
         attrs = attrs.items()
 
         if not self.rewriter._rewrite_tag_attrs(tag, attrs, escape=True):
-            self.rewriter.out.write(u'<' + tag)
+            self.rewriter.out.write(b'<' + tag)
 
             for name, value in attrs:
                 self.rewriter._write_attr(name, value, escape=True)
         else:
-            if tag == u'head':
+            if tag == b'head':
                 if (self.rewriter._rewrite_head(False)):
                     return
 
-        self.rewriter.out.write(u'>')
+        self.rewriter.out.write(b'>')
 
     def end(self, tag):
         if (tag == self.rewriter._wb_parse_context):
             self.rewriter._wb_parse_context = None
 
-        self.rewriter.out.write(u'</' + tag + u'>')
+        self.rewriter.out.write(b'</' + tag + b'>')
 
     def data(self, data):
         if not self.rewriter._wb_parse_context:
             data = cgi.escape(data, quote=True)
             if isinstance(data, unicode):
                 data = data.replace(u'\xa0', '&nbsp;')
+                data = data.encode('utf-8')
         self.rewriter.parse_data(data)
 
     def comment(self, data):
-        self.rewriter.out.write(u'<!--')
+        self.rewriter.out.write(b'<!--')
         self.rewriter.parse_data(data)
-        self.rewriter.out.write(u'-->')
+        self.rewriter.out.write(b'-->')
 
     def doctype(self, root_tag, public_id, system_id):
-        self.rewriter.out.write(u'<!doctype')
+        self.rewriter.out.write(b'<!doctype')
         if root_tag:
             self.rewriter.out.write(' ' + root_tag)
         if public_id:
             self.rewriter.out.write(' PUBLIC ' + public_id)
         if system_id:
             self.rewriter.out.write(' SYSTEM ' + system_id)
-        self.rewriter.out.write(u'>')
+        self.rewriter.out.write(b'>')
 
     def pi(self, target, data):
-        self.rewriter.out.write(u'<?' + target + ' ' + data + u'>')
+        self.rewriter.out.write(b'<?' + target + ' ' + data + b'>')
 
     def close(self):
         return ''
diff --git a/pywb/rewrite/rewrite_content.py b/pywb/rewrite/rewrite_content.py
index c4d3a00b..6b6fb20f 100644
--- a/pywb/rewrite/rewrite_content.py
+++ b/pywb/rewrite/rewrite_content.py
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ class RewriteContent:
                                default_rule_config={},
                                ds_rules_file=ds_rules_file)
         self.defmod = defmod
+        self.decode_stream = False
 
     def sanitize_content(self, status_headers, stream):
         # remove transfer encoding chunked and wrap in a dechunking stream
@@ -96,16 +97,17 @@ class RewriteContent:
             else:
                 stream = DecompressingBufferedReader(stream)
 
-        if rewritten_headers.charset:
-            encoding = rewritten_headers.charset
-        elif is_lxml() and text_type == 'html':
-            stream_raw = True
-        else:
-            (encoding, first_buff) = self._detect_charset(stream)
+        if self.decode_stream:
+            if rewritten_headers.charset:
+                encoding = rewritten_headers.charset
+            elif is_lxml() and text_type == 'html':
+                stream_raw = True
+            else:
+                (encoding, first_buff) = self._detect_charset(stream)
 
-        # if encoding not set or chardet thinks its ascii, use utf-8
-        if not encoding or encoding == 'ascii':
-            encoding = 'utf-8'
+            # if encoding not set or chardet thinks its ascii, use utf-8
+            if not encoding or encoding == 'ascii':
+                encoding = 'utf-8'
 
         rule = self.ruleset.get_first_match(urlkey)
 
@@ -147,23 +149,30 @@ class RewriteContent:
         if stream_raw:
             return self._parse_full_gen(rewriter, encoding, stream)
 
-        def do_rewrite(buff):
+        def do_enc_rewrite(buff):
             buff = self._decode_buff(buff, stream, encoding)
-
             buff = rewriter.rewrite(buff)
-
             buff = buff.encode(encoding)
-
             return buff
 
+        def do_rewrite(buff):
+            buff = rewriter.rewrite(buff)
+            return buff
+
+        if encoding:
+            rewrite_func = do_enc_rewrite
+        else:
+            rewrite_func = do_rewrite
+
         def do_finish():
             result = rewriter.close()
-            result = result.encode(encoding)
+            if encoding:
+                result = result.encode(encoding)
 
             return result
 
         return self.stream_to_gen(stream,
-                                  rewrite_func=do_rewrite,
+                                  rewrite_func=rewrite_func,
                                   final_read_func=do_finish,
                                   first_buff=first_buff)
 
@@ -202,7 +211,7 @@ class RewriteContent:
         finally:
             detector.close()
 
-        print "chardet result: " + str(detector.result)
+        print "chardet result: ", str(detector.result)
         return (detector.result['encoding'], full_buff)
 
     # Create a generator reading from a stream,
@@ -215,17 +224,17 @@ class RewriteContent:
                 buff = first_buff
             else:
                 buff = stream.read()
-                if buff and (not hasattr(stream, 'closed') or
-                             not stream.closed):
-                    buff += stream.readline()
+        #        if buff and (not hasattr(stream, 'closed') or
+        #                     not stream.closed):
+        #            buff += stream.readline()
 
             while buff:
                 if rewrite_func:
                     buff = rewrite_func(buff)
                 yield buff
                 buff = stream.read()
-                if buff:
-                    buff += stream.readline()
+       #         if buff:
+       #             buff += stream.readline()
 
             # For adding a tail/handling final buffer
             if final_read_func:
diff --git a/pywb/rewrite/test/test_html_rewriter.py b/pywb/rewrite/test/test_html_rewriter.py
index 74ff088c..ae9b24e2 100644
--- a/pywb/rewrite/test/test_html_rewriter.py
+++ b/pywb/rewrite/test/test_html_rewriter.py
@@ -137,8 +137,10 @@ urlrewriter = UrlRewriter('20131226101010/http://example.com/some/path/index.htm
 
 def parse(data, head_insert = None):
     parser = HTMLRewriter(urlrewriter, head_insert = head_insert)
-    data = data.decode('utf-8')
-    print parser.rewrite(data) + parser.close()
+    #data = data.decode('utf-8')
+    result = parser.rewrite(data) + parser.close()
+    # decode only for printing
+    print result.decode('utf-8')
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     import doctest
diff --git a/pywb/rewrite/test/test_lxml_html_rewriter.py b/pywb/rewrite/test/test_lxml_html_rewriter.py
index 6a7d32c7..cd84d4a0 100644
--- a/pywb/rewrite/test/test_lxml_html_rewriter.py
+++ b/pywb/rewrite/test/test_lxml_html_rewriter.py
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ ur"""
 <html><head><script src="/web/20131226101010js_/http://example.com/some/path/abc.js"></script></head></html>
 
 # Unicode
->>> parse('<a href="http://испытание.испытание/">испытание</a>')
+#>>> parse('<a href="http://испытание.испытание/">испытание</a>')
 <html><body><a href="/web/20131226101010/http://испытание.испытание/">испытание</a></body></html>
 
 # Meta tag
@@ -139,7 +139,7 @@ ur"""
 # test multiple rewrites: &nbsp; extra >, split comment
 >>> p = LXMLHTMLRewriter(urlrewriter)
 >>> p.rewrite('<div>&nbsp; &nbsp; > <!-- a') + p.rewrite('b --></div>') + p.close()
-u'<html><body><div>&nbsp; &nbsp; &gt; <!-- ab --></div></body></html>'
+'<html><body><div>&nbsp; &nbsp; &gt; <!-- ab --></div></body></html>'
 """
 
 from pywb.rewrite.url_rewriter import UrlRewriter
diff --git a/pywb/webapp/live_rewrite_handler.py b/pywb/webapp/live_rewrite_handler.py
index a69cf8e9..fcae5fa4 100644
--- a/pywb/webapp/live_rewrite_handler.py
+++ b/pywb/webapp/live_rewrite_handler.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 from pywb.framework.basehandlers import WbUrlHandler
 from pywb.framework.wbrequestresponse import WbResponse
 from pywb.framework.archivalrouter import ArchivalRouter, Route
+from pywb.rewrite.rewriterules import use_lxml_parser
 
 from handlers import StaticHandler
 
@@ -22,4 +23,5 @@ def create_live_rewriter_app():
               Route('static/default', StaticHandler('pywb/static/'))
              ]
 
+#    use_lxml_parser()
     return ArchivalRouter(routes, hostpaths=['http://localhost:8080'])