diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index f41e7ecee1..f4fbf00346 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -515,6 +515,7 @@ # EMBEDDING YOUTUBE-DL
 From a Python program, you can embed youtube-dl in a more powerful fashion, like this:
 
 ```python
+from __future__ import unicode_literals
 import youtube_dl
 
 ydl_opts = {}
@@ -527,6 +528,7 @@ # EMBEDDING YOUTUBE-DL
 Here's a more complete example of a program that outputs only errors (and a short message after the download is finished), and downloads/converts the video to an mp3 file:
 
 ```python
+from __future__ import unicode_literals
 import youtube_dl
 
 
diff --git a/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py b/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py
index be5b3c1ab5..e779fc9a87 100755
--- a/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py
@@ -323,6 +323,11 @@ def __init__(self, params=None, auto_init=True):
                 'Set the LC_ALL environment variable to fix this.')
             self.params['restrictfilenames'] = True
 
+        if isinstance(params.get('outtmpl'), bytes):
+            self.report_warning(
+                'Parameter outtmpl is bytes, but should be a unicode string. '
+                'Put  from __future__ import unicode_literals  at the top of your code file or consider switching to Python 3.x.')
+
         if '%(stitle)s' in self.params.get('outtmpl', ''):
             self.report_warning('%(stitle)s is deprecated. Use the %(title)s and the --restrict-filenames flag(which also secures %(uploader)s et al) instead.')