HD has been up most of the time during this time of "darkness". It is just like the network channles that are working now they are not locked like the ppv-movie-ethnic channels are.
HD receivers are around $700 at this time for DN and of corce you would have to have a HD tv to watch them..
Units using IKS (Internet Key Sharing) such as Nfusion are running. That means it is connected to the internet and relies on an aux server to get its video authorization "keys" to the clients. It does'nt stream over the internet, but they are getting the keys from a open rom 102,103 application and then sending through IKS. You do expose yourself to giving your IP ADDY to those that want it to track you down though.