Just had a chance to compare both these models recently.
Well, unfortunately only 30minutes with each, so couldn't set them up properly, just a bit. Sony has a very nice picture, but lacks brightness, so sometimes scenes seem dull comparing to Mits. Mits has enough of brightness in normal mode and it sharper but I wouldn't say that VW50 has problems with sharpness. They both are VERY quiet, PS3 makes much more noise :-)))
For me extra 1k in not an issue, but I would prefer HC5000, because lack of brightness is noticable no matter how I tried to make VW50 brighter.
AFAIK, both VW60 and HC6000 won't change brightness parameters (900 and 1000 respectively).
Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong