Special character output in html from mysql

Question

I am using a plugin in Wordpress that stores some html code in a field. This column is mediumtext utf8_general_ci

When I want to output this information all special characters such as " ´ ' ... and some others are displayed as black diamonds with a question mark inside

When the plugin shows this text it's perfect. This is in the head:

<meta charset="UTF-8" />

When I output elsewhere I have this in my head and all those characters are lost:

<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>

Characters are properly stored in MYSQL, and I output it via PHP like this

ob_start();?>
some html
<?php echo $row4['details'];?> <- this is the field im talking about
some html
<?php
$details = ob_get_clean();

and later just:

echo $details;

I have read quite enough and the charset is always mentioned, but I think mine is OK.

Thanks for the help!

Edit: Adding Full example

Text shown in WP. As I said in a comment this might have been copy/pasted from MS Word into Worpress by an editor.

8. Choose the verb to complete the sentence.

______ you ever _____ the proverb, “Time is gold”?
 Has… heard…
 Have… hear…
 Have… heard…

Stored in database like this (don't look into correct/user answer that works properly)

<span class='watupro_num'>8. </span>Choose the verb to complete the sentence.</p>
    <p>______ you ever _____ the proverb, “Time is gold”?</p></div>
    <ul>
    <li class='answer'><span class='answer'>Has… heard…</span></li>
    <li class='answer user-answer'><span class='answer'>Have… hear…</span></li>
    <li class='answer correct-answer'><span class='answer'>Have… heard…</span></li>
    </ul>

Text shown out of database (what im working on)

8. Choose the verb to complete the sentence.

______ you ever _____ the proverb, �Time is gold�?

    Has� heard�
    Have� hear�
    Have� heard�

Text shown after utf8_encode() thanks to Kirit Patel

8. Choose the verb to complete the sentence.

______ you ever _____ the proverb, Time is gold?

    Has heard
    Have hear
    Have heard

I've just discovered characters are still there. I can see a box with numbers while editing (not displayed in preview).

Something like this

Answer 1

You can use just like

<?php 

echo utf8_encode($row4['details']);
?>

Hope this helps you.

Answer 2

"Black diamonds" are discussed here . The "Someting like this" shows 0093 , which is an invalid utf8 code for some flavor of quote; on the other hand, hex 93, interpreted as latin1 is “ .

Can you simply switch to ascii quotes and apostrophes?

Otherwise, you need to use utf8 throughout -- starting with whatever is generating the hex 93.