Quality issues with my Mini DV camcorder

Hello, I come here often for advice.
Anyways, I have a brand new JVC GR-D250 Mini DV camcorder. I use JVC tapes also. I also use just a regular (nothing fancy) firewire. I record all of my sons basketball games with them so far. Less than 10 hours on the camera.
Now, I use Movie Edit Pro 10 to capture and burn. I burn with the settings at their highest setting (was told to do this). I am still having kinda bad playback when I play the DVD. Its kinda shaky in some areas and skips sometimes. There were zero dropped frames. I have tried Nero and still had the same problem.
I even went out and bought a brand new hard drive just to use to capture the video from the camcorder. I am planning on cleaning the heads (even though they do not require it yet) before I shoot the game on Saturday.
Can anybody give me some advice? Are there any setting on my camcorder that I am not aware of? I am shooting footage in "Auto" and the lighting in the gym is ok...not the best. I am just very frustrated that I paid $300 for this and it is not as good as I have seen some before.
Any tips? Thanks!