Methods and apparatus for associating each data packet in a media stream with logic corresponding to a particular quality-of-service (QoS) and/or error correction requirement. In an exemplary embodiment, each packet in the media stream is assigned a frame tag which designates a particular quality-of-service and/or error correction scheme for the corresponding packet. At least a portion of each packet is encoded according to the packet's designated quality-of-service as indicated by the frame tag. A receiver accesses the frame tags from within the transmitted media stream in order to determine the appropriate means for processing or decoding the encoded portion of each packet. In this manner, each packet within the media stream can have its own quality-of-service and/or error correction requirements and processing, thereby enhancing link efficiency and better enforcing QoS policy across the system.