Problem with character sets and backup/restore

[jcr3ca]

Backed up my database, but when restoring the site can barely be read. It's written in a foreign language. I tracked the problem down to differences between the database and the back up file.

Database on line says: " contradicció "
Backup file reads: " contradicció "
Or " però " vs. " però "

When restoring the website reads " però "

Apparently if restoring with phpmyadmin 4.1.11, it works fine, because there's a line that says: DEFAULT CHARSET = latin1

Problem is: phpmyadmin 4.0.24 does not accept that line. Gives error 1064 and only uploads the backup file if I remove that line.

I need to use 4.0.24 because it's the one used my host.

I'm told that I need to convert the backup file to a different format. Like utf-8, but I don't know how to do it, nor I have the appropriate tools.

Can you help me with this?

Thanks,