diff --git a/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py b/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py
index 055433362..4e57c9687 100755
--- a/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py
@@ -1639,7 +1639,7 @@ class YoutubeDL(object):
                     # Just a single file
                     success = dl(filename, info_dict)
             except (compat_urllib_error.URLError, compat_http_client.HTTPException, socket.error) as err:
-                self.report_error('unable to download video data: %s' % str(err))
+                self.report_error('unable to download video data: %s' % error_to_compat_str(err))
                 return
             except (OSError, IOError) as err:
                 raise UnavailableVideoError(err)