diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index b2ea18fc..57d5041a 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 language: ruby
 rvm:
-  - 1.9.2
   - 1.9.3
   - 2.0.0
   - 2.1.1
diff --git a/git.gemspec b/git.gemspec
index 5e90626e..be398103 100644
--- a/git.gemspec
+++ b/git.gemspec
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ Gem::Specification.new do |s|
   s.version = '1.3.0'
 
   s.require_paths = ['lib']
-  s.required_ruby_version = '>= 1.9'
+  s.required_ruby_version = '>= 1.9.3'
   s.required_rubygems_version = Gem::Requirement.new(">= 0") if s.respond_to? :required_rubygems_version=
   s.requirements = ['git 1.6.0.0, or greater']
 
diff --git a/lib/git/lib.rb b/lib/git/lib.rb
index 777e42ea..f95452a4 100644
--- a/lib/git/lib.rb
+++ b/lib/git/lib.rb
@@ -859,13 +859,28 @@ def meets_required_version?
 
     def command_lines(cmd, opts = [], chdir = true, redirect = '')
       cmd_op = command(cmd, opts, chdir)
-      op = cmd_op.encode("UTF-8", "binary", {
-	  	:invalid => :replace,
-		:undef => :replace
-	  })
-      op.split("\n")
+      split_utf8(cmd_op)
     end
 
+    def split_utf8(s)
+      # ruby can think the string is utf8 but any action on the strings chars
+      # will trigger errors. Here we try to split utf8 strings.
+      # It it isn't utf8 or if it fails, we fallback to assume the input is
+      # "binary" encoding
+      result = begin
+                 s.encoding == Encoding::UTF_8 && s.split("\n")
+               rescue Encoding::InvalidByteSequenceError, Encoding::UndefinedConversionError
+                 nil
+               end
+
+      result ||= s.encode("UTF-8", "binary", {
+        :invalid => :replace,
+        :undef => :replace,
+      }).split("\n")
+      result
+    end
+
+
     # Takes the current git's system ENV variables and store them.
     def store_git_system_env_variables
       @git_system_env_variables = {}