diff --git a/aegisub/frame_main.cpp b/aegisub/frame_main.cpp
index 6e7ac2b3d..39974e419 100644
--- a/aegisub/frame_main.cpp
+++ b/aegisub/frame_main.cpp
@@ -557,7 +557,7 @@ void FrameMain::LoadSubtitles (wxString filename,wxString charset) {
 			// Make sure that file isn't actually a timecode file
 			TextFileReader testSubs(filename);
 			isBinary = testSubs.GetCurrentEncoding() == _T("binary");
-			if (testSubs.HasMoreLines()) {
+			if (!isBinary && testSubs.HasMoreLines()) {
 				wxString cur = testSubs.ReadLineFromFile();
 				if (cur.Left(10) == _T("# timecode")) {
 					LoadVFR(filename);
diff --git a/aegisub/text_file_reader.cpp b/aegisub/text_file_reader.cpp
index 4bbffecea..85febc844 100644
--- a/aegisub/text_file_reader.cpp
+++ b/aegisub/text_file_reader.cpp
@@ -62,6 +62,7 @@ TextFileReader::TextFileReader(wxString _filename,wxString enc,bool _trim) {
 	// Set encoding
 	encoding = enc;
 	if (encoding.IsEmpty()) encoding = GetEncoding(filename);
+	if (encoding == _T("binary")) return;
 	SetEncodingConfiguration();
 }
 
@@ -127,8 +128,8 @@ wxString TextFileReader::GetEncoding(const wxString _filename) {
 	else if (b[0] == 0x2B && b[1] == 0x2F && b[2] == 0x76) return _T("UTF-7");
 
 	// Try to guess UTF-16
-	else if (b[0] == 0x00 && b[2] == 0x00) return _T("UTF-16BE");
-	else if (b[1] == 0x00 && b[3] == 0x00) return _T("UTF-16LE");
+	else if (b[0] == 0 && b[1] >= 32 && b[2] == 0 && b[3] >= 32) return _T("UTF-16BE");
+	else if (b[0] >= 32 && b[1] == 0 && b[2] >= 32 && b[3] == 0) return _T("UTF-16LE");
 
 	// If any of the first four bytes are under 0x20 (the first printable character),
 	// except for 9-13 range, assume binary