I have about 4 hours total recording time on my Xi and it flashed a notice that the head needed cleaning. I've not seen any distortion in the shots. Does this seem reasonable?
Thanks.

That is fast. Get a head cleaning tape, and see if that helps. If it still keeps coming up, send the camcorder back.

I went a year and a half before I got the dirty head message on the Xi after re-using one particular tape about 20 times. I didn't see any problems until I recorded onto a 2nd tape.

Try to stick with one brand of tape, and pick a brand of tape that also has a head cleaning tape. If you use Fuji tapes, like myself, the Sony head cleaning tape works just fine.

Ah ha! So someone else re-uses their tapes. 20 times....sheeze, I thought I was bad. ;)

Kev