xbmc.Player().play any alternative?

np with newer xbmc, i added   <loglevel>0</loglevel>  in main config file as before, but same situation:

if i xbmc.player().play(url) the log starts with:

00:50:26 m: 27844608    info: loading web playlist http://root:dreambox@192.168.2.97:31339/200,28a

if i insert the url into a textfile renamed something.m3u or .pls or .strm and i do
stream = 'f:\\sega.strm'
xbmc.player().play(str(stream)) i dont see anything in log (level 0) and nothing happens.
to be sure, if i set
stream = 'f:\\something.avi'
it plays the video, so i don't know what's wrong with my sega.strm, if i play in xbmc it plays

may i add something in python to log something more?