i just wanna know if the vip 211 can get the OTA locals without a subscription to dishnetwork..

i am thinking of purchasing one and need to know if it works just like the dish 811..

is an active account to dish required to view the free OTA hdtv channels?

i assume all i would need is a dish hooked up only right.?

Short answer-no.
My 811 has been acting up lately so I borrowed a 211 from a buddy of mine to see if it would work better.Hooked it up and it found 119 and 110,but no suscribed channels showed up in the guide.Apparently has not been activated yet,but he didn't know for sure.Anyway,I did an OTA scan and it picked up 5 or 6 channels but they didn't show up in the guide and were not viewable.