Extract left and right JPEG images from MPO

The stereo-conv utility included with StereoPhotoView exports separate JPEG images from MPO. JPEG output defaults to mono: the first command saves the left view, and --output-revert 1 in the second selects the right view.

Input and result

Input: an MPO containing left and right views, such as photo sample.mpo. Result: photo sample-left.jpg and photo sample-right.jpg. The source MPO remains the input file.

Steps

  1. Install StereoPhotoView. Check that stereo-conv --help is available in your terminal. On Windows, signing in again after installation may be needed for the PATH change.
  2. Open a terminal in the source MPO folder. Create a new empty folder named extracted, for example with your file manager. If it already contains results, choose a different name and change the commands accordingly.
  3. Run both commands. They work as shell syntax in Windows PowerShell and Linux bash; quotes preserve filenames containing spaces.
stereo-conv -o "extracted/photo sample-left.jpg" "photo sample.mpo"
stereo-conv --output-revert 1 -o "extracted/photo sample-right.jpg" "photo sample.mpo"
  1. Open both JPEG images and compare the position of a nearby object relative to the background. It should differ for a stereo pair; matching file dimensions alone cannot confirm view order.
  2. If needed, open the separate pair, selecting the left JPEG first and the right JPEG second.

Limitations

This is JPEG conversion, not a promise of extracting the original embedded image bytes without re-encoding. Views of a distant scene may look almost identical, and a source pair may itself contain duplicate views. Check image content rather than result filenames alone.

For several MPO files, see batch processing. You can then create an MPO or an anaglyph from separate JPEG images.

Documentation basis

Commands checked against the official CLI reference on 2026-10-05. Target version: 1.21.3.