diff --git a/yt_dlp/extractor/generic.py b/yt_dlp/extractor/generic.py
index 32815476fa..2153fe6b3f 100644
--- a/yt_dlp/extractor/generic.py
+++ b/yt_dlp/extractor/generic.py
@@ -2508,7 +2508,10 @@ def _real_extract(self, url):
 
         # Is it an RSS feed, a SMIL file, an XSPF playlist or a MPD manifest?
         try:
-            doc = compat_etree_fromstring(webpage.encode('utf-8'))
+            try:
+                doc = compat_etree_fromstring(webpage)
+            except compat_xml_parse_error:
+                doc = compat_etree_fromstring(webpage.encode('utf-8'))
             if doc.tag == 'rss':
                 return self._extract_rss(url, video_id, doc)
             elif doc.tag == 'SmoothStreamingMedia':