I too debated foe months over what receiver I wanted. I looked at Marantz, Denon, Onkyo and Pioneer. I auditioned Onkyo and Denon and found Denon to be the better of the two. Then I found Outlaw and I must confess I was a little skeptical because I couldn't listen or look at it first. Since I primarily listen to music and wanted to explore Home Theater I decided to take a chance on the Outlaw based on the reveiws online and the features. Once I received mt 1050 I was glad that I did. The quality of the unit is far superior to any mass produced lower end receiver. How they make the 1050 for the price they charge is beyond me. You do get 6.1 with the 1050 even though I haven't had the chance to use it everything I've read says it's the equal to DD-EX. If VHS is still important to you than DPL II should be a factor as I've heard it's much better than DPL. Other than that there really isn't much difference in the feature set between the two.

Basically, if quality of sound is your main priority then you can't do much better for the price than the 1050. If you need more features or want DTS-ES ( though I read somewhere you can decode 6.1DTS on the Outlaw) then the Onkyo is probably the way to go.
Whatever decision you make is entirely up to you.
Hope this helps and happy listening