Lightroom 3 and previews

Hi Everyone,
I'm struggling with some issues regarding previews in lightroom.
1. I've upgraded my catalog from lightroom 2 to 3 without re-rendering the previews. According to Jeff Schewe in the Luminous Landscape lightroom 3 tutorial there would be an advantage to disregard all your old previews and let lightroom 3 re-render everything. Could someone elaborate why this is the case and how the difference will be noticeable? He mentions something about a new rendering technique and use of color space.
2. I've tested the re-rendering by exporting my entire catalog without previews. Then re-importing it in a new, empty catalog and selecting library -> previews -> render 1:1 previews. What I've noticed is that the standard preview size in the catalog settings influences the total file size the catalog will have on the hard drive. Also when only selecting render 1:1 previews. The lightroom manual says the following about previews:
Lightroom renders three types of previews: thumbnails, screen resolution images, and 1:1 previews. 1:1 previews
have the same pixel dimensions as the original photos.
Does lightroom then render out all three of these previews when selecting render 1:1 previews?
3. To determine what setting to choose for the standard preview size and quality in the catalog settings I need to know what the standard preview is used for. Is it what you see when selecting fit in loupe mode?
4. After re-rendering all the 1:1 previews and then choosing to export a certain folder as a catalog lightroom completes the procedure but gives me the warning that it couldn't find certain photo previews. It seems these are the pictures that havn't yet been viewed in loupe mode by me. This contradicts the assumption I made earlier that lightroom would render out all three previews when choosing render 1:1. What exactly is lightroom missing here and what does it render out in loupe mode that it doesn't do when rendering 1:1's?
Hope this is not too confusing and thanks already for the help.
Freddy.

1. ... According to Jeff Schewe in the Luminous Landscape lightroom 3 tutorial there would be an advantage to disregard all your old previews and let lightroom 3 re-render everything. Could someone elaborate why this is the case and how the difference will be noticeable? He mentions something about a new rendering technique and use of color space.
Lightroom 2 used different color spaces for different preview levels: sRGB for low, Adobe RGB for medium an ProPhoto for high quality and 1:1 previews. Lightroom 3 uses Adobe RGB all the time. Plus, LR2 never applied sharpening and NR to standard previews (only to 1:1), LR3 does sometimes.
Also, the preview cache contains some databases, apart from the preview files themselves. These are a sort of directory, or index for the entire cache. They might be corrupted or malformed. Rebuilding them is a good thing sometimes.
I've tested the re-rendering by exporting my entire catalog without previews. Then re-importing it in a new, empty catalog
You might simply copy the catalog. Same result, but faster.
What I've noticed is that the standard preview size in the catalog settings influences the total file size the catalog will have on the hard drive. ... Does lightroom then render out all three of these previews when selecting render 1:1 previews?
Lightroom often builds several levels of previews. Some large images may have not two (standard and 1:1), but 6-7 levels.
To determine what setting to choose for the standard preview size and quality in the catalog settings I need to know what the standard preview is used for. Is it what you see when selecting fit in loupe mode?
Yes.
You must select a size that is egual or larger than you screen width in pixels.
What exactly is lightroom missing here and what does it render out in loupe mode that it doesn't do when rendering 1:1's?
I'm afraid, Lightroom sometimes silently fails to render the requested previews. That's why they are "missing".
I have experienced myself and read many times on the forum, about cases when re-running "Build Previews" just after a previous run has finished, still finds missing previews and builds again. That means that the previous run crashed silently, despite lack of any error messages.

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