Mac mini g4 2005 as a media centre

Hi,
My plan was this: mac mini linked to tv with a 2tb ext hd as a media centre
Controlled via either my 2009 mackbook pro or 3rd gen ipad.
Share media to 3 iphones a ps3 and 3 smart tv's within the house hold.

I have recently purchased a 2nd hand mac mini g4 processor on ebay to use as a media centre. I currently use a 2009 macbook pro running lion (thinking of upgrading to mountain soon) as the familys main computer, however we are outgrowing the hard drive due to the amount of movies,music & pics we have, so came up with the idea of getting the mac mini adding a large external hard drive and leaveing it switched on.
Unfortunately i have since found out that due to it being a 2005 model with a g4 processor i am unable to upgrade it to any of the latest software e.g lion & itunes 10.7.
In any of your opinons would it be a problem running the mac mini on older software than my macbook and ipad, or should i just re-sell it and go for an intel core 2 duo model!

I don't see why there would be a problem with the setup you described.

I know of more people that did the same.
It would also work if you download a copy of Ubuntu for PPC and install Ubuntu on it. Connect a USB hard drive and share that out,
up to you.

SM

If you want to play HD media, the G4 may be underpowered to show it without stuttering. You can try it first, but I do know that they are a little weak in that area. I use a 2GHz Core 2 Duo Mini as my media center, and it does 720P just fine, haven't tried 1080P as my TV is only 720.

Thanx very much for your replies, sur3mac and stretch. i will give it a go see how i get on.