diff --git a/testing/test_capture.py b/testing/test_capture.py
index edba3fcb3..cd1f2d865 100644
--- a/testing/test_capture.py
+++ b/testing/test_capture.py
@@ -493,3 +493,26 @@ def test_capture_early_option_parsing(testdir):
     result = testdir.runpytest("-vs")
     assert result.ret == 0
     assert 'hello19' in result.stdout.str()
+
+@pytest.mark.xfail(sys.version_info >= (3, 0), reason='encoding issues')
+def test_capture_binary_output(testdir):
+    testdir.makepyfile("""
+        import pytest
+
+        def test_a():
+            import sys
+            import subprocess
+            subprocess.call([sys.executable, __file__])
+
+        @pytest.mark.skip
+        def test_foo():
+            import os;os.write(1, b'\xc3')
+
+        if __name__ == '__main__':
+            test_foo()
+        """)
+    result = testdir.runpytest('--assert=plain')
+    result.stdout.fnmatch_lines([
+        '*2 passed*',
+    ])
+