When I pre render files from the time line that have CC,fades, etc... so I can view them at full frame rate and it comes time to render my final seq should I delete the PRE RENDERED files? or keep them?
Is the final render out to Encore or any other format I choose taken from these pre rendered files?

Nick

My guess is that files rendered for Encore are in fact just reencoded into M2V. But yes, prerenders are used throughout this process. You are safe to delete them at any point, but then the encoding will be slower.

Pre-rendered, or preview files, are only used when exporting to DV AVI. Otherwise, if you are exporting to MPEG, you don't use them. So if you are exporting to MPEG, feel free to delete them. They are of no value to you.

If they were used, then there would be an extra generation of loss. That would be unacceptable.