Netflix crashes on launch on Apple TV 4th Gen

I fought this problem for 2 weeks and recently found the fix. I'm sharing in the hopes that others will find useful.

I recently replaced an Apple TV 3rd gen with a 4th gen model. The setup was relatively easy and everything worked great except Netflix. When I launched Netflix it sometimes crashing instantly, sometimes launched to a white or black screen, sometimes launched but control was returned to the main screen (Netflix was running and select-able from list of currently running apps), and sometimes it actually launched to a Netflix screen prompting for e-mail address and password. After entering e-mail and password, the Netflix circle would spin a few times and I got dumped right back where I started -- enter e-mail and password.

I found this very frustrating as the Netflix application did not return an error or provide any clues as to what happened. Also odd that every other application (e.g., HBO, ESPN, etc) worked fine and the other 3rd generation Apple TV's in my house also worked fine.

The fix for this problem was to go into Network settings, change DNS to manual, and specify a Netflix accepted DNS server address. It appears that DNS servers provided by large ISP's (e.g., Comcast) and Google's DNS server (8.8.8.8) will work. The Open Source DNS server that I was using was the problem.

Apparently Netflix has been clamping down on those trying to run Netflix from geographic locations where Netflix is yet officially available. They are using, among other things, the address of the DNS. If your DNS server address is not on the list of Netflix accepted DNS servers, then Netflix crashes. It seems this has only been implemented on the Netflix app running on the 4th Gen Apple TV.