php and notepad unicode files notepad unicode csvfiles have a 2 byte BOM (FEFF) and are UTF-16/UCS-2 little endian encoded https://anupamsaha.wordpress.com/2011/08/02/detecting-utf-byte-order-mark-using-php/ http://www.w3schools.com/php/func_misc_pack.asp $ od -t x1z hot.csv | head 0000000 ff fe 48 00 6f 00 74 00 65 00 6c 00 49 00 44 00 >..H.o.t $ od -t x2z hot.csv | head 0000000 feff 0048 006f 0074 0065 006c 0049 0044 >..H.o.t bom little-endian php ucs-2 unicode utf-16