The 2007 Consumer Electronics Show really gets underway today, but between leaks, rumors and the keynote address, there was plenty to talk about over the weekend.

Bill Gates opened CES for the 10th consecutive year, confirming the rumors about Internet Protocol TV (IPTV). The service will bring TiVo-esque capabilities to Microsoft’s Xbox 360, for example letting users record television shows in the background while playing Xbox Live.

Details are still thin for IPTV for Xbox 360, which will be launched for the 2007 holiday season, so much of the online interest in the announcement comes from speculation of what’s yet to come. There was no mention of DVR or a bigger hard drive for the Xbox in the keynote, two expected features that would make sense with IPTV.

Wired’s Game|Life noted that making the service available through select providers like AT&T gives Microsoft an opportunity to get Xbox 360 systems into the homes of subscribers when they sign up for television service. As a few bloggers pointed out, Sony can’t do that with their rival Playstation 3 console. Yet, anyway.

Elsewhere, enormous televisions led to excited — and somewhat bewildered — posts (and lots of pictures) at tech and gadget blogs.

Before CES began, Christopher Null at Yahoo! Tech predicted that a 120-inch television would smash last year’s 103-inch record for a plasma set. A display of those proportions hasn’t yet been announced, but there are behemoths up on offer just the same. So far, Sharp’s 108-inch display takes the record with a high-definition LCD unit. At 94 inches high and 53 inches wide, it’s just a bit bigger than LG’s 100-inch, $100k competitor.

The units could be another body blow in the war between plasma and LCD. The latter already had the buzz and the increasing sales, and now they may have the “MTV Cribs” market cornered as well. Gizmodo put it like this: “LCD is now the sexy bling-bing technology. And plasma is looking like a dowdy old maid.”

If you just aren’t sure if there’s room in your living room — or bank account — for a television taller than you are, Sharp’s 70-inch LCD will probably be a relative bargain at $33,000 when it’s released next month.

(Reuters photos)