Is it possible to decode the data on a lower level? I mean somewhere between DBI and Class-DBI so that Class-DBI accessors provide already decoded data.

In the code I have posted above I have changed Encode::_utf8_on($_) to $_ = Encode::decode_utf8($_) unless Encode::is_utf8($_) but I get Cannot decode string with wide characters at ..../Encode.pm line 162